


Not Meant To Be

by Levi_Lane



Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:47:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 33,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23054950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Levi_Lane/pseuds/Levi_Lane
Summary: you're starting to feel comfortable in Devildom when a certain demon starts to catch your eye.
Relationships: Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 45
Kudos: 174





	1. Familiarity

You’re laying in your bed, gazing up at the vines and leaves covering your bed poles and ceiling above you. The small lit candles that are always burning among the greenery that never catch fire are slowly flickering. You always loved how your room looked but that was by far the most impressive. It was little things like that, that made you love Devildom. The twisting maze of streets lined with stores and cafes and marketplaces. The beautiful architecture of all the buildings, so unique, so unlike the human world. 

You move under your plush blankets, it tends to be slightly chilly all the time in Devildom, no one else seems to be bothered by it but you though. You sum it up to you just being human in a demon world and just layer up when you get too cold. As you plug up your phone and snuggle up under the covers you hear a small knock on the door.  
“Come in.” You call out, the door gently opens and Mammon walks in, looking at his phone, “you’re later than usual.” You say softly.  
“I got caught up at Majolish, the photoshoot was a lot longer than I intended.” He kicks off his shoes and walks over to his pile of clothes he’s built up in your room. You don’t mind it, you tend to keep your room fairly clean and organized but his clothes laying there just became normal.  
“Why doesn’t Asmo ever go model? Isn’t that his “thing”; beauty?” You turn over to face Mammon, you watch him take his shirt off, showing off the faint white lines over his body.  
“He would never let another person tell him how to dress and look, might start a war.” He snickers a little towards the end of his sentence. You drift your gaze away from him as he changes his pants. He plugs up his phone and walks over to your bed, you inch back to your side of the bed. He makes himself at home, your bed is big enough for three or so people, so him laying down doesn’t invade your space nor do you really care if he is in your space. 

He smells like cologne and hairspray. He presses his cold toes against yours and you laugh in shock. He is so subdued around you. He’s not high strung or trying to prove a point when he talks to you. He’s actually very laid back when it comes down to it. He doesn’t have to prove anything to you, you know who he is and you accept him and all his not-so-bright decisions. If only he was more respectful and nicer towards humans. He likes you so much but he always points out your weaknesses and your species’s faults.  
“So what did you do on your day off?” He asks as he tucks his arm up under the pillow under his head, using his other hand to push his styled hair out of his face.  
“Well after breakfast I sat in the planetarium and read for awhile, did some homework..”  
“Homework on a day off? Awful.” He scoffs, “you humans are so focused on work, never play!”  
There he goes with the human thing again, you dismiss it, “I’m actually passing my classes, Mammon, maybe you should turn some work in? Y’know, Satan is worried about you failing...” you say in a little sing song voice, teasing him. His cheeks redden a little, and looks away, turning to lay on his back.  
“They’re always so ‘worried’ about me but never listen to me! I’m their older brother for fuck sake!” He shakes his fist in the air and you can’t help but to let out a small laugh. He drops his arm to look over at you, “I mean it’s true. I’m THE Mammon!” He suddenly sits up, causing the bed to shake, the leaves to hush and the candles to flicker faster, you almost fear that they might fall, you sit up too.  
“The Avatar of Greed!” You add in. This sends a flame of energy through him, his eyes light up.  
“Yes! I deserve the upmost respect! I’m their brother.” He repeats. He always brings up the brother part, as if it means more to him that he’s kin to them not that he’s an avatar of a sin.  
“I’m sure they love you as much as you love them.” You soften your once excited tone, get him too worked up and Lucifer will soon be knocking. Mammon doesn’t say a thing but his red cheeks and ears are enough, he lays back down, his back to you.  
“goodnight.” He settles down on his side of the bed and you follow suit. 

That night you dream of your home life, your bedroom, your classes, your friends, your family back home. Your heart aches for the familiarity of it all but you have an odd feeling of dread going back...your eyes open, another day is about to start, Mammon is already gone. 

No classes today either, tomorrow they’ll pick up again. Walking into the dining hall, everyone is there in their normal clothes, no tight uniforms or bags. You take your seat next to where Leviathan is supposed to be but he’s always last.  
“Good Morning!” Asmo is the first to call out to you, always ready to look his best even at eight o'clock in the morning. Next was Satan to great you with a smile that always seems so devious, next was Beel with his mouth full of food.  
“Where is Mammon?” You ask.  
“He only ate a few things and then ran off.” Satan shrugs.  
“Probably to do something dumb.” Asmo sighs, shaking his head with a disappointed look on his face, “but we can always do something together today! Who needs that Mammon?!!” He offers, this probably entails a bunch of shopping and him trying to convince you to come into his room. You don’t mind it except when his lust gets the best of him.  
“Mmm maybe, I still have an essay to do.” you politely decline his invitation.  
“Morning...” Levi sluggishly drags himself into the room, dark circles under his eyes, Asmo’s attention soon pulls from you to him, lecturing him about his skin and taking care of himself. Breakfast has always been so repetitive, you wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Late afternoon arrives, you’re sitting at a coffee shop that offers human like lattes and drinks, it’s your favorite one. Reminds you of home almost, if it wasn’t for the demons sitting all around you. You finished your essay about an hour before and you’re enjoying your second cup of coffee. You’ve been absentmindedly doodling away in your notebook, listening to soft music through your headphones. You find yourself drawing little characters of all of the brothers and yourself.  
The chair across from you gets pulled out, you look up to see if it’s someone just borrowing it for another table when the person sits down in front of you.  
“Oh hello, Solomon!” You take your headphones off and pause the music.  
“I thought I may find you here.” He offers a warm smile, he’s so kind, “it’s the most human thing they have here.”  
“They also have the best coffee.” You add.  
“Missing home?” He hums.  
“Well, sometimes I miss the....what’s the word I’m looking for...”  
“Familiarity of it?” He offers  
“Yes! I never thought I really belonged anywhere when I was in the human world, until I came here.”  
“Why is that? Is this place giving you a hard time?” He suddenly changes his expression to concern for his slightly younger friend.  
“No, I love it here! It just put things in perspective for me, all the people I knew, the friends I made, I did fit in there, maybe I was trying too hard or overthinking things. I’m surrounded by so many different demons now that I don’t even know how to even introduce myself.” I laugh a little to hide my slight anxiety.  
“The whole ‘fitting in’ part of the human world is very easy. Be kind, be understanding and listen. And you can make a friend anywhere you go if those around you are willing. It is a lot different here, most won’t even offer a passing glance.” He taps his finger to his chin a few times, “maybe it’s because Lucifer has threatened them all about not hurting us that they’re afraid to even speak to us.”  
“You mean me,” I give him a skeptical look, “I’m just a human, not a sorcerer like you, I have no powers compared to those around me. Just a weak human.”  
“Weak? I wouldn’t say that, takes a lot of guts to live here so fearlessly, look at you studying in a demon cafe all alone.” He smirks, “anyone could eat you up but you’re so trusting!” 

I didn’t even think of that, I was told to stay away from other ‘low level’ demons in fear that they might devour me but I haven’t come into any incident yet. I glance around the dimly lit cafe, all the demons talking, others in tongues I can’t recognize, other that makes me feel dizzy to even look at. They’re surrounding me, and I didn’t even feel an inch of worry or fear for myself. These are the types of demons that people in the human world tell stories about, make movies about, people have nightmares over yet...here I study.  
“Thank you, Solomon.”  
“A friends is always near if you ever need something.” He stands up and offers me one more smile before walking away. 

It’s not hard to consider yourself weak compared to all the demons around you possessing so much power and influence. And the one demon that you tend to stick around the most calling you weak, as if it’s almost a reminder of your underlining thoughts. That one demon...Mammon. He tends to stay on your mind. It is because he’s supposed to be watching you, protecting you? A fluttering feeling tangles up in your stomach, you adjust your hands on your backpack’s straps. Your hands feel a little sweaty, you shake your head and keep heading towards the House of Lamentation. 

The beautiful courtyard comes into view, the familiarity of it soothes you. The same way you felt in the human world when seeing your room and falling into bed or a certain candle burning as you read a book by a window....the small things tend to stick out in your brain more these days. You end up making it to your room without being stopped by any of the brothers surprisingly. Dropping your bag by your door, you change into more comfortable clothes. Plopping down on your bed you consider to go out and find one of them to hangout with or is it too late for that? Who would be willing to hang out? You check the time, almost eight...you could bother Levi.  
You slip on your fuzzy house shoes and make way towards that little favorite nerd of yours.  
Takes a while to get to his room but you make it soon enough. You knock.  
No answer.  
You knock again.  
No answer. You huff, where is he? This is insane, he’s always in his room!  
“Oh hey, whatcha doing here?”  
You spin around, “Levi!” You smile, “I came to hangout!” His eyes widen and he blushes a bit.  
“I’m about to do a raid with some friends...I can’t miss out!” He opens his door but you follow close behind anyway. You walk up to his giant fish tank to take a loving look at Henry the goldfish. He sits down in his gaming chair and pops open a soda and a bag of trail mix.  
“Do you miss Lotan?” His beloved seven headed sea serpent.  
“Everyday.” He’s facing you, watching you look at his goldfish, “what’s wrong.” He asks.  
“Huh?” You look at him.  
“You don’t just hangout with people, you’re always so focused on school until someone drags You somewhere.” He shoves more trail mix in his mouth.  
“Oh..well, I finished my essay and I had nothing to do so I thought I’d come see you, I don’t see you as much as everyone else.” You walk over to him and he offers you some trail mix. You take some.  
“Where’s your leech?”  
“Mammon?” You say confused but a little amused.  
“Mm.” He confirms.  
“Don’t know, haven’t seen him since last night.” He looks at you for a moment, studying you it seems, he turns around in his chair.  
“Well, raid’s gonna start soon! You’re free to...I guess....hang out or something....but I’m playing this game!!” He puts his headphones on. You know there won’t be any other conversation or fun to be had here if you stuck around you just give him a sideways hug goodbye and leave his room. His face was bright red or maybe it was the computer screen reflecting off of his pale skin.  
You make your way back to your room, passing the main hallway on the way, you hear some voices, you look down the hallway, into the foyer, to see Mammon at the door, waving to someone outside. You walk up behind him, you try to get a look at who it was, but they were already gone.  
“Oh! I thought you would be in your room by now.” Mammon mumbles.  
“No,” you shake your head, “I was hanging out with Levi for a bit.” Yet again, there’s this studying look that Levi just had coming from Mammon. “What?”  
“Nothin’.” He pats the messy bun of hair on top of your head, “walk with me to my room, need to grab something."  
“Sure.” You have nothing else to do so, you follow. His room is closer to yours than Levi’s for sure, following him into his room, you can’t help but to smell this sweet, berry scent on him. It’s so strong. You walk over to the couch he has and sit down, his room has to be the biggest out of them all, you watch him go to his closet, you advert your eyes again, “don’t be bringing more clothes to my room...”you joke.  
“I already took those to the laundry.” He replies, shocked, you look over at him, but he’s so messy? He cleaned up after himself? You see him standing in his underwear, his back to you. You can see scars on his back, his legs. He can feel your eyes on him, “it’s when I fell from grace.” He confirms your thoughts on the scars, you look away once more, “I had huge white feathery wings, matched my hair!” He laughs, “my wings now, smaller, thinner. I wanted them to be impressive like they were but there’s nothing I can do about it.” He pulls sweatpants on, then a long sleeved shirt, “maybe that’s why I got stick with these wings, because I want better ones.” He walks over to the couch with you and sits down right next to you. You suddenly feel nervous.  
“Maybe so...” you say softer than intended. That sweet scent is still so strong, “what is that cologne you’re wearing?”  
“What? I’m not wearing any...” his face lights up almost as red as Levi’s did earlier. You’re confused, how can he not smell it...it’s almost addictive.  
“Uh-uh yeah! I forgot I did put some on today!” He waves off his sudden nervousness. His arm is laid out on the back of the couch, behind you, you’re facing him, your knees tucked up onto the couch, your slippers on the floor. Your hands in your lap, his other free hand is brushing through his hair, his legs turned towards you. There’s a thick feeling of want in the air that neither of you are willing to acknowledge. You look up at the tall demon, his tanned skin that make his white hair pop, his blue eyes that can never really make your gaze much these days are suddenly pouring into your eyes. His strong shoulders are relaxed, his free hand reaches over to touch one of yours. You suddenly feel your face get very warm. You look down at your hands slowing falling into one another. His arm that was laid out on the back of the couch, slowly reaches up to touch the back of your head, his fingers playing with the few strands of hair that have come free from your bun. His cologne smells has if it’s taking you over, every breath, you want more and more. You look back up at him, he’s so focused on you. You almost feel bad for getting lost in this feeling.  
“Mammon...”you start but he pushes your head up a little, and leans down, you let him kiss you. Your whole body feels warm, like there’s a warm fire burning next to you, his hands come to your cheeks, yours go to his chest. You two sit there and kiss and kiss for who knows how long.  
This feeling isn’t comparable to anything you’ve felt before. It’s just right. He pulls away for a moment, his horns has made an appearance, you smile. He smiles too, he sits back against the couch, and stares at you. Once again with that studious look.  
“What is it?” You ask.  
“I have been around for many hundreds of years an-“ the door busts open its Lucifer.  
“Why is y/n, not in their room!, it is past curfew!” He yells, “Mammon!”  
“The human is fine! See? I’m watching them!” He stands up, you didn’t even notice is horns disappear. You guess his wings were out too, considering the small holes and tears in the back of his shirt from the thorns that adorn the tips of the wings.  
“It’s a school night, head to bed please, y/n. And Mammon come with me.” He sighs and gives you an apologetic look. You head off to bed. 

At breakfast you don’t see Mammon, once you get to class, you sit next to him but he doesn’t say a word to you. Soon that’s all you can think about is Mammon and his sudden cold shoulder to you, “what did Lucifer say to him last night? Is it my fault?”  
Class after class, lunch and yet again more classes. Not a peep, soon everyone is concerned. Asking him what’s wrong and why he’s so quiet. No response. Not even a passing glance. Right after school you head back to that cafe, you should probably learn the name of it but right now you just need an escape. You head to your favorite spot, next to the window, that looks out on the river that the cafe is placed next to. Plugging your headphones into your laptop, you start your homework.  
After a while your phone begins to blow up from messages from the group chat with all the brothers. They’re talking about nonsense again, you decide to ignore it and finish up the last few math questions. After doing so, you check back in on the chat.  
They’re talking about Mammon. 

Asmo: not even a gasp or moan when I called him out for being stingy!  
Beel: he seems very upset.  
Asmo: Satan even tried to make him upset like he does to Lucifer and it didn’t work!  
Levi: maybe he finally grew up... 

The chat dies down for a second, this is where Mammon usually comes in ranting about the disrespect and starts to deny everything. But, nothing. 

Lucifer: we had a long talk last night and I would advise you all to study on your school work unless you would like the same. 

A wave of shocked emojis come through and the chat ends for now. 

You decide to text Mammon yourself.  
“Are you okay?”  
Nothing.  
“Mammon, i'm worried. Is it about last night?”  
He read it, he’s typing.  
“You’re at that cafe aren’t you?”  
You’re surprised about him actually knowing about this place.  
“Yeah just finished my homework.”  
“Stay.” 

So, you stay, and you wait. Two minutes pass but it feels like five.  
Five minutes pass and it feels like nine.  
Suddenly the cafe doors open and he looks over at you. He offers a weak smile before coming over.  
“Let’s go somewhere more private to talk?” he offers.  
“Sure.” You nod, he waits for you to pack up your stuff and he takes your bag for you, you two walk out of the cafe, and head towards the opposite end of Devildom. You two walk for about twenty minutes before finding this staircase that leads up a grassy looking hill.  
“Don’t touch the grass.” He warns, “it’s thorns.” He lets you walk up first. Up and up and up, til you get to this plateau on top. It’s dark up here, the grass looking thorns are black as night, as they sway around this concrete covered area. Little lighting bug looking things shine an orange red among the thorns, he leads you over to a bench that looks out on this strange yet beautiful scene.  
“That smell...you smelt on me last night.”  
“That Berry scent? What about it, what-“  
“Y/n,” he sighs, “what I was going to say last night was, I lied, I wasn’t wearing cologne, this happens to humans when they’re infatuated by a demon.”  
This news surprises you, so he knew that you started growing feelings for him?  
“I took advantage of you, I’m sorry, I just like you and I wanted you all to myself.” He’s looking down at his clasped hands.  
“Mammon, I like you too-“  
“No, no you don’t, that’s just....it’s just your human brain being treated by my demon...” he’s having a hard time making words without trailing off or stuttering, “it’s just you being a human and my demon powers pulling you in to take your whatever life force you have! That’s why Lucifer wants you to stay away from demons! That’s why he wanted me to protect you rather than the others! He thought I wouldn’t fall for such temptation or something, I don’t know! If we continue like we did last night-“ he looks over at me, his face red, his eyes rimmed with held back tears, “you’ll fucking die. I will kill you. I will devour you like Lucifer said, I’m Greed itself, I will want more and more.” He stands up, “I will want every drop until you’re gone!” You look up at him in his sudden angry state, this feeling of fear washes over you, you understand what he’s saying, you don’t want to die but you don’t want to ignore what you feel for Mammon.  
“I’m sorry.” His voice shakes a bit, “I shouldn’t of kissed you, I knew what was happening, I couldn’t stop myself.”  
You look out onto the large plateau of thorns, now hushed from the lack of wind. The blinking lights around you are slow and methodical. He sits back down next to you.  
“So, we have to pretend like nothing ever happened.”  
“Yeah...no one can know.” He leans back, “I’m going to say that I got a bug and I was feeling sick today and they’ll soon forget about it.” He assures you. It becomes quiet once more. Your crush on him grew so fast and your love for him blossomed while you kissed, his hands that touched your face so softly, his chest that was so warm. But only twenty four hours later, your warmth inside you, your ever growing liking of him was crushed. Ripped apart, stabbed, thrown away into nothing. Into this field of thorns. This beautiful field of thorns he took you to. This tightness in your chest starts to swell and swell, it feels almost unbearable. You let out a soft sob, and as soon as you do, he pulls you to him. You cry, you let yourself go. You cry over him, over your feelings, over your home and friends. You cry over what could’ve been. And he holds you, he lays his head on top of yours and let’s you have this moment to yourself. 

You don’t know if you can let go of him.


	2. Distance

You find yourself walking to that field a lot recently and every time you do, luckily, its empty. You sit on that bench, looking out on the thorns and those little bugs that call this place home. Things have been back to normal as Mammon said they would be, he’s acting as if nothing happened and so are you. Yet, he doesn’t come around as much, he walks you to class, he makes small talk with you in whatever classes you’ll share. The nights you two would share in your room or out to eat or roaming the house were in the past. He doesn’t even text you as much as he used to. 

He’s distancing himself from you for your safety and you hate it. You want to be with him like you were. You want his pile of clothes in your room again, you want his midnight texts about meaningless nonsense. You want him back, even if it’s just as a friend. You check your phone and it’s getting late. You’ve been staying out of the House of Lamentation more and more lately, roaming the city or studying at the cafe. No one has questioned you about it though so for now, this escape from everything can stay. 

A few more minutes here won’t hurt, the little bugs start coming out more and more until you’re able to see the faint glow of their bodies starting to reflect off of yours. Lost in thought about many different things; ranging from your studies, to your hometown compared to here to what you think you’ll be having for breakfast the next morning, you forget to keep track of time. You check your phone and it’s ten o’clock!  
You spring up off of the bench and grab your backpack, slinging it over your shoulder then, sliding your arm through the other strap. You rush down the stairs and onto the the still busy roads of demons.  
Picking up a quick pace towards your current place you call home, you catch looks from passing demons.  
You catch scents of food and alcohol as you rush pass restaurants and bars. Different music is playing all around you in a symphony of clashing tunes. All of it is very disorienting and you start to lose your speed after walking about five minutes. You’ve never been one to work out or keep yourself in the most athletic shape. You keep pushing forward though, hoping Lucifer isn’t waiting at the front door for you. You check your phone again and you haven’t had any messages or calls so maybe they haven’t noticed?  
That’s good. Last thing you need is Lucifer giving you a three hour lecture on being in bed on time and being more aware of your surroundings.  
Another fifteen minutes of walking you make it to the front gates of the house.  
One problem though.  
The gates are closed and locked.  
Fuck. 

You try to think of another way in or a secret passage way that might exist in hopes of not having to wake everyone up. You check your phone again, no calls or texts. It’s so unlike everyone to not be checking in on you, it almost starts to hurt your feelings. You try not to overthink, everyone has different lives and it’s okay if someone doesn’t talk to you for a day...  
but everyone?  
Did Mammon tell everyone what happened and-No, he wouldn’t, this is exactly the opposite of what he’d do. You need to calm down and not overthink. Focus on how to get in. You walk the perimeter of the gate a bit before realizing it blocks off the sides of the house as well. You walk back to the entrance and check your phone once more just in case.  
Nothing.  
Only a notification that your phone has about 10% left of a charge.  
“Shit.” You mumble. You have to call someone. Who?  
Whose bedroom closest to the entrance of the house?  
You try to mentally map out the house and...it’s...  
Mammon. You call.  
“Please pick up. Please, please.” You chant to yourself.  
Nothing. You call again.  
“...hello?” A mumbled greeting comes through the phone.  
“Mammon!” You shout in excitement.  
“Yeah yeah? Why are you yelling?”  
“Can you come let me in?” You beg.  
“What? Let you in?” He pauses, “it’s ten thirty, where are you? Outside my door?” You hear shuffling of the sheets.  
“I’m outside.”  
“My door?”  
“The house.”  
“Huh?” He yawns. And it gets quiet, too quiet, you check your phone to see if you’re still on the line.  
Your phone is dead.  
“No!!” You yell trying to force it back on. The little devil face for the start up screen appears but it shuts back off each time. You hope that Mammon heard and understood what you said and you wait. You hold onto the gate's bars and stare impatiently at the front door that's way up on a flight of stairs. Five minutes pass, nothing.  
“Mammon...please!”  
You hear some shuffling from a patch bushes down the sidewalk. You snap your head over to the right and look down the street that’s dimly lit with street lamps. You suddenly feel very exposed, your whole body feels a unsettling sensation of fear. You press yourself closer to the bars in hopes it can protect you in a way. You see a dark mass tumble out of the bushes and onto the sidewalk. It’s far enough away for you not being able to make out what you’re looking at. It’s body shifts and turns and tumbles around on the ground for a while. You’re too afraid to take your eyes off of the mass to check to see if Mammon is on his way yet, it slows down it’s movements before slowly turning one part of its body around and around.  
Until it sees you. It’s eyes small, like a slit barely across its face yet it glows yellow, it beams wildly against it’s almost incomprehensible figure to make out in the dark. It inches closer, you hear a rumble. You look at the front door, it’s still closed.  
“Oh god oh god oh god” you think, your heart is in your chest, your blood feels like it’s drained from your body. “It’s going to kill me.” You should’ve been home on time! You should’ve been more responsible about your surroundings! It pulls itself on the ground closer and closer to you. You feel tears start to rush down your cheeks, they feel hot. You blink and blink to keep the blurring of your eyesight away.  
“No...” you look back to the house. The door is open!! You see Mammon!! He sees you!! He walks down the stairs lazily. “M-MAMMON!” You scream. He hears the sudden fear in your voice and takes off towards you. You look back at the mass that was crawling to you just to meet it eye to eye. It’s yellow eyes now large and glowing so bright you can’t help but to squint. It smells awful, like copper and sulfur. It’s nauseating. It grabs your right arm, you scream and try to pull away and it’s claws only dig in deeper. The gates fly open away from you and the figure was slammed to the ground. You try to get a look at what’s happening but your eyes can’t keep up.  
It looks like a black wind is swirling on the ground and then suddenly up in the air just to be slammed down again. Until it dispersed leaving Mammon alone in the street, a few bruises on him but no scratches or blood. His wings flap a few times, rushing bursts of air towards you. After a few moments of him standing ready in the street, he looks back at you. And runs up to you.  
“What’s going on? Are you okay? Oh god, I mean, devil, you’re bleeding.” He says in a panicked, rushed voice. You look down at the arm the demon grabbed and you see a few prick marks from where the claws dug in for a few seconds before Mammon saved you.  
“Can we go inside?” You ask, he nods, going back into his usual form, he walks you inside and back to your room. 

You take a shower and change into more comfortable clothes as he waits patiently outside your door. Once you let him in, he’s ready to help you fix up your arm.  
“You sure you don’t want to tell anyone what happened?” He pulls out some tube of cream, putting it on his finger then to your small wounds that have stopped bleeding.  
“Yes, I don’t want to worry anyone and I’m sorry for waking you up.” You look away from him, not wanting to meet his serious gaze.  
“Well, I can tell you that the demon that attacked you isn’t poisonous or can infect you in any way. It’s one of those ‘low level demons’ Lucifer talks about though, you have to be careful, y/n.” He places a band-aid on each prick mark.  
“Mammon is lecturing me? I must’ve done something Real stupid then!” You try to lighten the mood. He doesn’t seem to like it.  
“Why were you out so late? Where were you?” He tosses the wrappers into the trash and watches you walk over to your bed and sit down.  
“I did my homework and I was walking around...” you get embarrassed to tell him about your visits to the hill.  
“For that long? There’s no way.” He crosses his arms, waiting for you to tell the truth. Should you? It’ll just bring up an awkward tension in the room. You debate the idea in your head for awhile before sighing and giving in. He saved you and risked himself in the process, might as well.  
“I went to that hill covered in thorns for a while...and I got lost in thought..that’s all, I swear.” Your heart picks up its pace again, not sure of what his response will be, you look at him and see his expression change. He drops his arms and looks down at the ground. “It’s a beautiful place is all...I didn’t mean to stay out so long, thank you for saving me. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t call you.” You try to fill the quiet room once more.  
“Probably would’ve died. And it would’ve been on my ass since I’m supposed to be protecting you. You’re a weak human and you need to learn your place in this demon world!” His fists are clenched and his expression is harsh. You don’t know what to say. “Make sure no one sees those band-aids tomorrow!” He opens up your bedroom door and let’s himself out. The door shuts and you’re alone again.  
Only thing accompanying you is this stinging feeling in your chest, one that you can feel up to your throat. You much rather the pain in your arm that demon gave you than whatever this is that Mammon just did. 

_You’re a weak human and you need to learn your place in this demon world._

That phrase has been running through your head all day, he’s always called you weak and talked to you like you’re lesser than him whenever he’s mad. It’s not fair, even when you’re upset, you don’t bash on him. Why does he feel the need to hurt you like that when he feels like it? You’ve been nothing but nice to him this entire time, you like him for fuck sake! Even if he’s trying to do this to hide his own emotions or make you two grow apart it’s uncalled for. It starts to make you mad.  
You start to distance yourself from him as he has been doing to you. You walk to class with him and you walk home with him. You don’t even try for conversation anymore. Why bother yourself with someone who doesn’t see you as equal? You know your worth. Even though at times you catch yourself looking at him and even getting that fluttery feeling in your stomach; you remind yourself of his true feelings about you.  
You learn to hide your emotions from him, to act like you’re okay. Even if you’re excited or stressed or sad you don’t show an inch of it.  
And he tends to do the same.  
Two weeks pass of this, everyday is the same.  
Breakfast with everyone, classes, home, dinner with everyone and once again off to bed. 

You’re headed off to your room one night after dinner and you’re about to walk in when Beel stops you.  
“Hey, do you have a minute?” He smiles. He’s always been so kind to you.  
“Of course!” You offer a smile back. He gestures you to walk into your room, you hold the door open for him and he walks in, “what’s up?” You glide over to your bed and plop down.  
“Are you alright? You’ve been acting very different recently...” he starts off kind of shyly, his hands clasped together against his chest.  
“No complaints here! Although, demon history has been a little rough on me...” you admit, “there’s been thousands and thousands of history that you all have recorded and I don’t even know if I have the memory to even remember the half of it for this test!” You shake your head. So does Beel.  
“Nuh-uh. Not with school but, personally.” He looks at you with hope in his eyes you can tell he really has been worrying for you. You feel bad about lying to him. You can't just outright tell him everything that happened, not only you but Mammon would get in trouble as well.  
_...not that you care..._  
After that thought, that fluttering feeling twists you up again.  
“I miss home is all. It’s been on my mind a lot recently.” You lie, “I’m sorry to worry you, Beel.” He almost seems satisfied with that answer, he gives you a nod and a smile before leaving you to your lonesome. 

A little later that evening, the group chat starts up. 

Mammon: FESTIVAL WILL BE IN TOWN THIS WEEKEND!!!!  
Amso: I’ve already picked out my outfit!  
Satan: didn’t we all get a flyer for it last week?  
Mammon: No! I didn’t!  
Beel: I was there when you got one...  
Mammon: whatever. We’re all going right?! 

A trail of happy emoji’s come rolling in one after another. 

Luicfer: y/n, are you interested in coming as well?  
You: yes! I can’t wait!  
Asmo: stick with me and you’re guaranteed a great time! 

The Festival comes once a year in Devildom and the whole city comes out for it. Filled with music, carnival games, candy and snacks. There's rides and stalls of different things to buy, it's usually four days long. The last night of the festival there's a firework display that everyone looks forward to and mostly what it's known for. It reminds you of the carnivals that travel from town to town in the human world in the summer but, this festival seems a lot more lavish and fun. You've been looking forward to this since you heard of it last week and all of your classmate's excitement has only doubled your anticipation for it! 

"Should be fairly warm out this weekend...what should I wear?" you ask yourself picking around in your closet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i used to write all the time a few years ago...feels nice to be back at it again lol. i'm having way too much fun with this


	3. Pungent Berry

You find yourself at the cafe again, sitting in the very back corner this time, your favorite spot was taken. You blankly stare at your laptop screen, a page about demonic significance in recent human wars covers the screen. You’re rolling your pencil in between your fingers as you listen to the soft music playing in your headphones. You were reading about World War One and the increase of deals made with the demon world when, your mind began to trail off. 

You can’t wait to smell all the kettle corn and cotton candy in the air. Listening to some artists play live sounds pretty fun too but, you can’t get your mind off of this firework display that everyone brags about. You can’t help but to wonder who's in charge of this festival. Certainly, isn’t the brothers responsibility; they seem too care free about it and you would’ve one hundred percent heard them talking about it a lot sooner if they were in charge in some sort of way. Wow, that really would be a disaster if they did run it though. 

You laugh a little at the thought. Lucifer and Satan would take It seriously as they could but Satan would drive Lucifer crazy! Asmo would be so caught up in himself and what he would wear each day as a host would end up being a job within itself. Beel would be eating the stock piled food for the festival rather than helping cook or sell any. Leviathan wouldn’t dare think about doing such a heavy person orientated thing, he barely goes to school! Mammon would charge everyone outrageous amounts and rob them of any penny they might have on them or rob them in general! You shake your head at the thought of the pure chaos that would’ve ensued. That's probably why they aren’t in charge at all. 

Mammon...he can’t leave your mind, can he? He’s always poking around in there isn’t he? Why can’t you just let him go? Stop liking him! Stop wishing you could go back to that time in his room! There’s no getting it back! You won’t feel his hands on your cheeks or his arms wrapped around you. You won’t know what it’s like to be with him. He’s made it clear that he wants your relationship platonic. Yet, his energetic attitude and positive mind set tends to draw you in. Sitting next to him in class doesn’t make things easier either, you can still smell that sweet berry scent, it’s faint like a lotion that hits your nose every so often. You could almost smell it from memory. You pick up your coffee and take a long sip. The toffee nut flavored drink suddenly tastes really sweet. You look at it confused. 

_...what?_

You take another drink...there’s no denying it, it’s sweet, sweet like...fruit. 

_oh no_

You pack up your things and rush off without your coffee, hoping it was just a slip up at the barista’s part or something you might have added by accident. You rush back into the house and make way to your room. You stop by the kitchen which, is the door before yours. You peek your head in to see that it’s empty before sliding in and going to the fridge. You’re not sure why you came in here or what drew you in to grabbing a piece of heavily salted jerky on top of the fridge, that Levi likes to eat, just to rip a piece off in your mouth that tastes like unbearably sweet fruit. You spit it out in the trash in shock. 

“What?” You gasp, grabbing a bottle of water, opening it up and drinking it. Nothing just.... the after taste! You check the bottle over and over, the package you got it out from. Just plain water, there’s not added berry flavoring. It’s just... what is this? Why can’t you get this berry flavor out of your mouth? Why is this happening now? You take off into your room. Is this what you think it is? There’s only one way to find out, find Mammon, you’ll smell that berry scent and maybe you can connect it to the flavor that’s lingering in your mouth, it could just be a attraction side effect thing that he talked about when you admitted to smelling that scent on him. 

You change out of your school clothes and walk to Mammon’s room. You can just say you’re bored and want to hang out or...or... you don’t know what to talk about with him anymore. 

What will you say? You all haven’t talked really in weeks, and you’re just going to show up out of the blue to ask to hang out? You back away from his door. Maybe you’re better off to find out tomorrow or tonight at dinner if he shows up. 

“Y/n?” You hear his voice a little ways down the hall. Damn. You turn yourself towards him, “what’cha doin’ here? Need somethin’?” He walks up towards you. There it is, that now overbearing sweet scent. You feel your cheeks get warm. If that scent had a flavor, this is it, you just know that this is it! He got back from Majolish just now, you can tell by his nice clothes and styled hair. 

“No... uh, I don’t need anything in particular.” You shrug. How come these demon brothers all tend to have the same look on their face when they study you? It’s like they know you’re lying, their eyes are dull and their expression is very serious, the aura in the air is intimidating in a way. 

“How’s your arm?” He asks, opening his bedroom door, letting you walk in first. Your heart is pounding, you feel flustered and a little weak. 

“Feels like nothing ever happened.” You touch your upper right arm, not even being able to feel a slight bump on your skin. An awkward silence fills the room, he doesn’t walk to his closet to change clothes, you don’t sit on his couch. You used to be so comfortable around Mammon, you didn’t think twice about these things before. He lets out a sigh. 

“Y/n.....I...” he starts off. You didn’t think your heart could pace any faster than it did that night you got attacked but it is, his cheeks look a little red if you’re not mistaken, his demeanor is similar to the one he had that night he kissed you. 

“Yeah?” You hope the shaking of your hands isn’t very noticeable. 

“I don’t like us ignoring each other.” He bluntly spits out, you’re shocked, maybe he feels the same about you? “I miss hanging out, I do. But you realize we can’t be together...right? It's dangerous.” 

“I know.” You nod, “I miss hanging out with you too...” 

“I don’t want to hurt you. I want to be your friend but if staying away from you means you’ll live safely then I’ll do it.” He walks over to his couch, you follow. 

“I don’t think that’s true. We can be friends! You don’t have to worry about me, all the stuff that happened is in the past, right?” He sits down on the couch, looks up to you with a look on his face that you don’t recognize, “we’ve moved on, right?” 

“It is and we have.” He nods slightly, sitting back. 

“I guess I’ll see you at dinner later?” You don’t want to stay in this awkward situation any longer. 

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” He pulls out his phone to check the time. You let yourself out. Closing the door behind you, your heart feels like it’s ripping. Why did that conversation hurt so much? It's not like anything bad happened; you both agreed to be friends again that’s all! You take off to your room in a quick pace. You just want to be in your room, you should’ve just stayed in your room. You feel tears brimming your eyes. 

_Dammit! Dammit!_

You get to your room. 

“Hey! Y/n!” You turn and see Levi, “do you know who ate some of my jerky?” 

“No idea, sorry.” You go into your room. Levi saw the tears in your eyes and your panicked attitude. He’s stunned, he’s not sure what to do. Should he knock on the door? He walks over to your door; he can hear a few sniffs. 

“Are you..okay?” He asks through the door. You open the door, “ah...” he sees the tears on your cheeks. You hug him, he hesitates at first but he wraps his arms around you. You two stand there in silence, in a long hug. 

“Thank you, Levi. I needed that.” You pull away. 

“Want to play some video games?” He offers, you nod. 

The weekend approaches quickly, the first night of the festival is here and the house is in an uproar. No one is allowed to leave until their homework is done and Mammon might have a breakdown before the night is over. He comes to your room showing the literal pile of work that he has to do before he can leave the house. 

“Please help me!” He begs. You two have been talking more and more these past few days, you’ve become a little more comfortable around him again but that intense scent hasn’t left and the taste in your mouth is overbearing at times. You were ready to go, finally picked out your outfit and styled your hair. It took you forever it felt like. You want him to go too, he seemed the most excited out of all the brothers about this festival. 

“Okay but I’m not doing all your work!” You declare, he separates the pile in half. Most of it is math homework. 

“Do you have any of these we can just copy?” He asks. 

“I can look.” You sigh. You luckily find some work that was handed back to you and you two start rushing through the work. He tends to be good at math if he thinks about the problems if he relates them to money. He starts to fly through page after page. You try to keep up but some of his work is more advanced than the work you get. He says it’s because he’s been around for so long, it’s only normal to have more advanced problems. “I don’t think we’ll be able to finish all of this before the end of the night.” You sigh, sitting back, pressing your back against the wall. Feeling the leaves from some of the vines wrapped around your bed brushing the top of your head. 

“Do you think we could sneak out without Lucifer noticing?” He offers. 

“Does he not go to the festival?” 

“Only the last night of it, to see the fireworks.” He adds, scribbling more equations down. 

“He’s probably watching you or waiting for you to escape.” 

“You’re probably right.” He sighs, “and he would ban me from the festival this year if I were to try to sneak out.” 

“You really care about going to this festival, aren’t you?” Shocked at his sudden maturity. 

“It’s the best time of the year!!” He adds, “I don’t want to miss out.” 

You two work and work on his homework, there’s no way he’s piled up this much! The homework load here is a lot but there’s no way you’ve done this much in the few months you’ve been here. He tries to get you to leave without him a few times but you refuse. After a few more hours of this he tosses the last paper to the side and he checks the time. 

“5am...” he sighs, “I’m sorry, y/n. You could’ve gone without me.” 

“You really wanted to go and I would’ve felt awful if I ditched you here.” You admit. 

“You’re too nice.” He shakes his head. Your eyes feel heavy, the music playing in the background from some lofi livestream you started playing a few hours ago only makes you more tired. 

“I just want to help you out...” you yawn, “you’re my friend.” 

“And you’re mine.” He wraps his arm around your shoulders and gives you a slight hug, “thank you for helping me, I don’t know...I don’t know what I would’ve done.” 

“You probably would’ve failed...” you close your eyes; you lean your head on his shoulder. 

“Sorry again about the festival.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” You yawn once more, patting his chest a few times before dropping your arm down to your side. The last thing you remember is that sweet berry fragrance that you’ve grown to like so much. 

The next morning you wake up to Mammon’s snoring, you grab your phone and check the time, eleven a.m. You feel wide awake for some reason, even though not getting much sleep at all, you sit up and stretch your arms up in the air. 

“mmm?” Mammon stirs, “morning?” he says in a questionable tone. 

“Yeah, it’s eleven.” you feel uncomfortable in your clothes, your tight jeans feel to be digging into your skin, your shirt feels restricting. You climb over Mammon to change clothes; you grab some random things from your dresser before going into your bathroom. Your makeup is smudged a little but most of all has irritated your skin. Your brush your hair before pulling it up to you wash your face. You broke out a little but overall, it could’ve been worse. After your daily morning routine, you walk back into your room, surprised to see that Mammon is still there. You figured he would’ve left by now. Usually, he does, mostly before you’re even awake or, well, he used to do that. 

“We probably missed breakfast.” he’s rubbing his eyes, sitting on the edge of the bed, “we can go out for breakfast if you want.” 

“I don’t know if I have the money for that,” you slide on your house shoes, “I'm only given so much a week to spend.” 

“Huh?” he looks at you, “you get an allowance?” 

“Yeah, to get whatever I need, I don’t think I can work a job here and go to school. Lord Diavolo set up the idea.” As you’re talking Mammon is getting up and pulling his shoes on, “where are you going?” you follow him out the door and down the hall, “Mammon....” you sigh as you realize that you are headed straight to Lucifer’s room. 

_do I want to be here for this?_

“Lucifer, I know you’re in there! I can smell ya!” he knocks, the door flies open. 

“This better be you saying you finished your work and have turned it into your teachers.” he calmly states seeing that you are present. 

“Well, I did finish my work but this isn’t about that! Tell Lord Diavolo I want an allowance too!” he demands to his older brother; Lucifer’s eyes go from Mammon down to you. 

“Is this about your weekly expenses?” 

“I just told him about it, I didn’t tell him to ask...” you feel very small in this situation. 

“Mammon, y/n gets this because they simply cannot work down here in the demon world. Maybe you could benefit from a job though.” he says, his voice smooth and stern. 

“Hey, hey, I didn’t say anything about that!” Mammon loudly declares, you feel someone looking at you and see that you all have attracted the attention of Asmo and Satan whose heads are poking out of their bedroom doors. 

“Y/n, why don’t you go enjoy some lunch in the dining hall with Beel, it seems Mammon and I need to have a talk.” he smiles at you. Mammon looks over at you too. You offer him a small smile before you turn on your heels and head off for some lunch. 

Good luck, Mammon...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Berry scented things is the most overwhelming smell to me. especially in candles, i prefer coffee or nutty scented things.


	4. Sunflower Yellow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> too good to be true it seems...

The last day of the festival comes quickly, you spent the last two days riding every ride, trying any new food you found, looking at every stall you could with whatever little time you had. Asmo brought a disposable camera and took photos of everything, he plans on taking even more today. You put on the light blue top that Asmo bought you a few weeks back, it shows off your shoulders and collarbones, it’s supposed to be the warmest night so, why not? You grab a jacket just in case and meet everyone at the front door. 

“Ready!” you shout in a cheery tone, everyone is already waiting, you see them all smile at you, this warm feeling spreads throughout you like a fire. You wish you could take a photo of this! At this moment you truly know that you love all of them so much and you are so grateful to be able to do this year long exchange program. You'll miss them dearly when it’s time to go home. 

“Oh! That’s the top I got for you!” Asmo announces, “you look amazing! I knew you would look so beautiful in it! I had to get it.” you feel a little flustered from the rush of compliments from him. 

“Thank you, Asmo for buying it.” you smile, he takes a photo of you. 

“Let’s hurry!!” Mammon rushes everyone out the door, is it just you wanting a reaction out of him or is his face a little red? You walk with Mammon in the back of the group, still haunted by that sweet smell, almost anything else is drowned out by it still, “We have to get a good spot on the field to watch the show! Beel make sure you lay out the blankets in a good spot! Not too high up on the hill!” Mammon quickly shouts, Beel nods in agreement. 

“Hill?” you ask. 

“Yeah! It’s on the outer fields from the festival, everyone lays out blankets or tarps to sit and watch the firework display.” he explains. 

“A little way up the hill so you’re at a good angle and you don’t have to strain your head up to see the sky.” Satan adds in. 

“Makes sense.” you nod. You all make it to the festival grounds and there’s music playing loudly, people talking, laughing and screaming. Everyone takes off in different directions leaving you alone with Lucifer. 

“How is the stay so far, y/n?” he looks over at you with a smile. 

“I love it, this place is wonderful!” you answer truthfully, you do love this place, you wish you could stay longer. 

“That’s good to hear. Lord Diavolo will love to know that as well.” you two walk to the stalls and look at some more things. He offers to buy you a few things but you politely decline, not wanting him to spend any money on you. He still buys you a few things that keep catching your eye, “you won’t be here forever, y/n, a few souvenirs will help you remember your stay.” 

“I won’t ever forget this place,” you tell him, “speaking of, after this,” you hold the new purse he bought you in your hands, “will I ever be able to come back? To visit?” 

“Well, we could most definitely arrange that.” he nods. 

“Or maybe extend my stay?” you look up at him, hopeful. 

“That I'm not too sure about, that requires a lot of conversation and paperwork that Lord Diavolo may or may not have time for but you are always welcome to a visit.” 

_to a visit, it’s weird to think that only in a few months I'll be back in the human world; as if this never happened_

You find yourself at a stand filled with glowing orbs of light in every color you could possibly imagine as dusk hits, the sun is starting to set slowly, you should make your way to the back field to meet up with everyone else. You lost Lucifer in a crowd about a half hour ago but you feel comfortable here In this happy place. 

“Each light has a meaning and whatever color draws you in is said that is who you are deep within.” You turn to see Mammon standing behind you, you weren’t surprised though, his sweet scent was becoming stronger by every step he took toward you. 

“They’re all so beautiful,” you gaze at the lights again, “I've never seen anything like it.” 

“I’ll get you one.” he offers, you look at him shocked. 

“THE Mammon is offering to buy me something? Is the world ending?” you joke. 

“Just pick a color!” he crosses his arms. You really want one of these amazing looking orbs of light, you take a deep breath before clearing your mind to determine which color calls to you the most. Your eyes travel to this sunflower yellow that seems as if it’s pulling you in, you point to it. 

“That one, that yellow one!” the stall attendant grabs the small orb and hands it to you, as Mammon pays the attendant you gaze at the orb, smooth like glass but lighter than air the yellow orb shines brighter and brighter as you hold it, “oh, I love it Mammon, thank you so much.” you smile. 

“y/n, I want to tell you that I'm sorry about being so cold to you recently.” he places his wallet back into his pocket and you both start walking through the crowd. 

“I understand why you were, you wanted my feelings to go away to protect me, it’s okay, really.” You assure him, placing the yellow light into your new purse. 

“Let’s go this way.” he motions towards a trail that leads to a part of the festival you haven’t yet seen. It goes through a hollowed out bush that leads out to a giant deck looking out on Devildom. 

“Woah....” you gasp, you can see the light setting in the sky and the lights of the town start to flicker on, “you know of so many amazing places.” you tell him. 

“You tend to find them after living here for so long.” he leans against the railing. It's quiet for a bit before he looks over at you, “i’m glad we met, y/n, I'm glad they chose you for the exchange program.” 

“I am too, I feel so lucky.” you place your arms on the railing of the deck, leaning against it. Just as you do, he reaches out towards you, pulling you into a hug. He places his head on yours. As he begins to talk you can feel his voice rumble in his chest, you’re lost in his scent, you feel as if you’re covered in it, you mouth feels as if you’ve shoved it full with every fruit you can think of. 

“I’m sorry for making you cry.” he says softly, his voice is gentle. 

“what-” he cuts you off. 

“Levi told me that he caught you crying the other night, it was after you left my room, right? I'm sorry.” you squeezes you tighter, “I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t know how many times I've told you that but I mean it.” you hold on to him, feeling embarrassed that he knew you cried, “this has been hard for me too,” he presses his forehead to the top of your head rather than his cheek, “i really like you too, you’re all I think about. I’m afraid that it’s because of my greed though.” 

“Mammon...” 

“You know how I told you about the scent you smell on me?” he straightens himself up, his hands on your shoulders, “I have a similar thing with you.” he goes to your purse and pulls out the shining orb, “there’s an aura of light that surrounds you, it burns so bright sometimes that I can’t even look at you,” he holds the yellow burst of light in his hands, “this is the color I see around you.” you look at the light in his hands, your light in his hands, “yellow is my color.” 

“Your color?” you ask, confused. He places the orb back into your purse gently, he faces you once more. 

“It’s my tale-tale sign that I'm attracted to you, that....” he sighs, “I don’t know why I'm doing this after I said that I wanted to protect you, I'm sorry,” he shakes his head, “I shouldn’t be doing this to you.” 

“Please tell me, Mammon.” you step closer to him, he looks you in the eyes. 

“I was always told that If I ever met someone who was meant for me that they would shine so bright that I couldn’t ignore it. I thought it was some metaphor but, Lucifer talked about this before many years ago, this person shined his favorite color and it was so bright that he couldn’t help but to stare.” he clears his throat, “and all I see is you, y/n, I can’t stop admiring you even though it may mean I could hurt you, that I could kill you.” he touches your face gently, his thumb grazing your cheek bone, “yet, I am a demon and you’re a human, there’s no way we can be together...” 

“There has to be a way.” you try to negotiate but he shakes his head. 

“Trust me, there isn’t a way. I know this...and I'm sorry.” he leans in touching his forehead to yours. 

“I only have a few more months here, can we just pretend until then? Can we just love each other until I have to leave?” you suddenly offer, trying anything to just have him even if it’s just for a little while. “Just focus on me for a few more months.” you reach up to touch the sides of his face, both of your eyes are closed and so are his. 

“You might get hurt.” 

“Can we just try?” You plead. 

“I want you more than anything,” he admits, “I want you more than money can buy but, I’m so afraid.” his hands are on your hips now, the sky is growing dark. 

“I will take that risk for you, I trust you, I trust that you will never hurt me, Mammon.” and with those words he kisses you. His lips press against yours over and over. You feel so relieved, your body feels relaxed as if some tension it was carrying was lost after weeks of lugging it around. He presses you against the railing and slides his hands up your back, kissing your face, your jaw, your neck and shoulders. It gives you chills, you hold onto him, afraid to let go. You don’t want this to end. 

**BOOM**

A firework explodes, you two break apart to look. The bright colors of orange, yellow and red cover the sky. 

“We should get to the hill with everyone else before they start realizing something is up.” He holds out his hand to you and you take it. Both of you take off towards the hill, running towards the field hand in hand. You slow your pace as you make your way down this large hill already covered in spectators. You see Asmo and Levi waving at you both, you wave back. 

“Where were you guys?” Satan asks. 

“Caught up at a stall! Sorry!” You apologize. You sit down on the large blanket; Mammon takes up the end of the blanket to your right. You look down towards your left making sure all the brothers are here and to find out Solomon, Luke and Simeon has joined the group. The fireworks slowly start firing one after another before the sky is covered in them. It truly is spectacular, the colors, the designs. You feel Mammon wrap his pinky finger around yours. Your heart flutters at the contact, this night has turned out a lot better than you expected. But what changed Mammon’s mind? Why did he all of a sudden decide to be with you? Only a few days before he refused to look at you and reestablished your _platonic_ relationship with him. Is it really his greed that made him change his mind or is there some other underlining factor? Hopefully it’s because you’re leaving soon and he didn’t want to regret ignoring you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've cleaned so much at work recently. my hands hurt, i would rather be at a carnival looking at magical things than scrubbing with disinfectant all day.


	5. Search of copper

Classes resumed the next day as usual, you’re overjoyed by last night's events, you admired all the gifts you received along with Mammon’s sudden change in mind about you. Before bed you’re brushing your teeth still unable to taste the minty flavor of the paste nor the mouthwash that you thoroughly use. Gum has been your best friend since this taste has refused to leave your mouth. You've been stressed about how your breath smells since you can’t even taste to see if something you ate or drank left a lingering smell. You don’t mind the taste in your mouth that much anymore; you think it’s related to your feelings for Mammon. You can always smell that faint berry scent even if he’s not around now. Might as well ask him since you two are together, so no shame in asking. 

Climbing into bed, you plug in your phone to charge as you text Mammon to see if he’s done with Majolish yet. 

Mammon: “I have about another hour left before we’re done here, why? Need somethin’” 

You: “Come to my room after?” 

Mammon: “Yes! Of course!” 

You try your best to stay awake until Mammon got home about an hour and a half later but once he walked into your room you were fast asleep. He slides off his shoes gently before taking off his shirt and pants to climb into bed with you. He can hear your snores as you’re off in whatever dream land your mind decided to take you tonight. He lays on his back for a while on his phone before setting it down on the floor next to the bed. He turns on his side facing away from you before realizes that he can actually cuddle you if he wanted to. He looks back at you, you’re faced away from him, the covers half off in a deep sleep. He decides to leave you alone, you look too comfortable to him to interfere besides, he’d rather you be awake if he made a move on you like that. What if you weren’t comfortable yet with all the touching and kissing? He doesn’t want to push your boundaries is all... he turns on his side once more before falling asleep himself. 

You wake up to a nice surprise the next morning to Mammon lying next to you, your feet touching, his hand on your stretched-out arm towards him. You scoot closer to him wanting to feel more of him. He cracks his eyes open, he squints his eyes and furrows his brows for a second, adjusting to his surroundings. He then, looks down at you, he smiles. 

“Good morning.” he pulls you to him in a hug. You wrap your free arm around him while your other is pinned against you. 

“Morning.” you say back, breathing in his faint berry cologne on his skin. Your morning routine for school starts as usual and Mammon joins you. 

“Was there a reason you invited me over last night or did you just want to hang out?” he asks you through a mouth full of toothpaste and spit. You could barely make out what he was saying but as soon as you got it, it jogged your memory about the taste in your mouth and the meaning. 

“Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something about this attraction smell thing.” you nod, brushing your hair out. 

“I don’t know why you smell fruity scents off me, that’s your brain.” he spits and washes his mouth out. 

“No, not that!” you laugh a little, “the taste!” 

“Taste?” he asks, looking over at you instead of through the mirror. 

“Yeah, I've had this sweet taste of fruit in my mouth for a while now and I was wondering if it’s related to me liking you so much.” you set your brush down to face him as well. 

“I don’t know about any taste, I mean, I could see if there is something like that, that could happen but I'm pretty sure it’s only smell.” you both walk out of the bathroom and back into your room, “you sure you’re brushing your teeth well?” 

“Yes!!” you say with a light hearted scoff and chuckle, “so, taste isn’t a thing?” 

“Not that I know of.” He admits, looking concerned but, that’s how far the conversation went that morning before you two both hurried off to breakfast and then to your classes. That evening after school, Mammon is tagging along by Lucifer a lot more than usual. You noticed this but didn’t say anything, you tended to stay away from poking around Lucifer when it wasn’t necessary. After dinner that evening Mammon followed Lucifer around long enough until Lucifer gave in and asked him what he wanted. 

“Mammon, if you have something you want to say, then say it.” He shakes his head, hoping it’s not more debt needing to be paid off somewhere. 

“Well, do you remember that one time like a couple hundred years ago you told me about that light you saw around-“ he cuts Mammon off. 

“Are you seeing a light around someone?” He sits down in the large cushioned chair in his personal study that Mammon has followed Lucifer to. 

“I just have a question about the whole attraction thing and what happens to the person you see light around.” He leans against Lucifer’s desk. Lucifer seems slightly suspicious about Mammon asking a question that doesn’t encounter a monetary gain. 

“Ask.” 

“I’m supposed to see a light and they smell a overwhelming scent. But, is that it?” He’s starting to feel uncomfortable asking his older brother this, hoping he’s not being too weird or noticeable about what’s going on, “is there anything else they get from me? A taste or somethin…” he trails off not knowing how to do this in a roundabout way. 

“I am not sure about anything else than the smell. To my knowledge it’s just smell.” Lucifer answers calmly but the look in his eyes is all one that Mammon knows too well. He’s suspicious all right, he knows something is up. Mammon gets up to leave but Lucifer interrupts his escape, “if you are seeing something in y/n, you need to stop.” 

“Wh-what?” He stammers, “y/n? No way, I know that could never happen! I don’t want to be with a weak, fragile human anyway!” He yells, hoping if he acts annoying enough Lucifer would drop the situation. 

“You know what happened with Lilith, don’t repeat mistakes that we have learned from.” Is all Lucifer said before Mammon left the room with a guilty conscience and now more confusion into why y/n is having a weird side-affect that not even Lucifer knows about. Someone has to have an answer but, who? Who could Mammon go to that would have an abundance of knowledge about random…things…Satan! 

Mammon heads off to Satan’s room and naturally he isn’t there. He lets himself in anyway, Satan’s room is piled high with books, the walls are lined with bookshelves and those are packed with books with not even an inch of room to add anything else to them. In front of those shelves are his stacks and stacks of books he’s collected. Mammon scans the room, not even knowing what to look at. He knows Satan loves to collects all kinds of books, some carry curses or spells on them some, can come to life or kill you on the spot. He has to be careful, maybe he could find something relating to demon…how does he even classify his situation? Demon romance? Does he really want to look into something like that? He definitely knows he wouldn’t get something he needs from that, that’s more Asmo’s speed. 

“Mammon.” Satan says with a sharp tone, “why are you in my room?” He steps in, closing the door behind him, “you’re not trying to pawn off one of my priceless books are you?” He has a sickening smile on his face. 

“No! I can’t believe you think of me like that!” He spins around on his heels to face Satan and his eerily calm demeanor. 

“it’s not above you.” he replies, pushing past Mammon towards his books that lay in a semi-circle around a lounge chair, “if you truly don’t intend on stealing from me, what do you want?” he offers a chance for Mammon to redeem himself. 

“I was actually here to see if you had a book on something that I could borrow.” he follows Satan over to his chair, standing in front of him as he sits down, looking shocked. 

“ ** _You_** want a book?!” 

“Yeah! Is that so hard to understand! No need to get so upset over it!” he yells, his cheeks feeling hot. Satan lets out a laugh that he tries to cover with his hand. 

“Sure, sure,” he waves his hand in the air as if he’s waving off his sarcasm in his voice, “what kind of book.” Mammon suddenly gets tossed back to his previous thought process. What does he exactly need to look for? 

“Uh, a book about...” he stutters, Satan leans in to listen, “about demon attraction...stuff?” Satan bursts out in laughter and Mammon immediately regrets his words. 

“Demon attraction?!” he laughs, “What? Got the hots for someone?!” Mammon doesn’t say anything, he crosses his arms and looks away, “look, even if I did have a book about the enticement of a demon, I wouldn’t give it to you,” he calms down, becoming more serious by each word he says, “but, I can’t say this isn’t weird for you, you usually don’t go asking around for things like this. Is there really someone you’ve found that’s caught your eye?” Mammon sighs and drops his arms to his sides. 

“Forget it.” and with that Mammon leaves the room, maybe he’s better off to stop asking questions around his brothers and to find something for himself. 

_I guess it’s time for a trip to the library_ he quickly makes his way towards the public library. He looks around to see if anyone he knows is around to watch him go into this place before ducking into the building that is way more lavish and beautiful than he thought. He always imagined the library to be a dark, quiet, boring place that you couldn’t talk in. This place broke all of those ideas as soon as he entered. Plenty of natural light from the windows, some even had glass stained mirrors hung on them creating streaks and bubbles of rainbow light everywhere. He hears faint children laughter to his left, he follows the sound a bit to a room tucked into the back of the library filled with little kids sitting in front of a woman whose reading a book to them. He turns around and makes his way back to the main entrance, that has a searching station for the huge library. 

He gets the gist of it rather quickly and looks up the term Satan used earlier _enticement of a demon_ he finds a few books under that name and related to the subject. The first book he checks out brings him to an aisle filled with smaller but longer looking books that all seem to have the same character on it. 

“What is up with this guy? Is he famous?” he mumbles to himself; he finds the book he was looking for and opens it up to a random page. His eyes shoot wide open, his face is blood red as he shoves it back in its place before storming off to the next area. He ends up in the nonfiction aisles and pick out three books that he hopes has some sort of answer. He goes up to the receptionist and places the books on the table, “I’d like to get these.” 

“Alright, do you have your library card?” she asks, scanning the books. 

“I... I don’t have one of those?” 

“No problem! We'll sign you up!” and with that Mammon heads back to the House of Lamentation. He quickly rushes to his room and shoves the books in the best hiding place he could think of. 

Over the next few days Mammon reads through the books the best he can without falling asleep and even then, he’s still not finding anything about a sense of taste in the other person’s mouth. Over and over he reads about the aura around the person they have interest in, even if it’s not remotely romantic and the overwhelming pungent smell they will smell on you. Nothing about taste!! He becomes aggravated on his wasted time that he could’ve used on making money with. On these same few passed days, Lucifer has been keeping an eye on Mammon, especially after the news he heard from Satan. He’s noticed a pattern, he shows up to breakfast with y/n every morning, goes to his classes and instead of going off somewhere to cause trouble or make money, he goes to his room for about three to four hours before going to y/n’s room for the night. And tonight, Lucifer is going to confront him about it. 

Lucifer waits until he figures Mammon should be in his room and heads that way but, what Lucifer doesn’t know is that Mammon has already made his way back to the library to turn in his books and then to y/n favorite coffee shop to grab their favorite drink. 

“Oh, hey Mammon I didn’t know you liked coffee.” he hears a familiar voice, he turns his head towards the voice to see Solomon sitting down at a table. 

“Oh, uh, yeah, I was just picking this up for y/n, they asked me to.” he tries to get out of the conversation quickly but Solomon jumps up and follows him out of the café. 

“You’re pretty close to y/n, aren’t you?” he smiles, Mammon stops. 

“Did my brothers put you up to this? Because, tell them no, I have no interest in a stupid human, I am just being nice.” he huffs, trying to derail his suspicion. 

“No no, they didn’t,” he lets out a light laugh, “it’s just something I’ve noticed on my own!” It falls silent between the two for a moment as they walk. 

“Solomon,” he lets out a shaky sigh, should he ask this? “You’re a sorcerer, you’ve been around your fair share of all sorts of demons.” 

“All sorts of beings.” He nods. 

“Have you heard of the scent someone will smell off of a demon when they are attracted to them?” 

“I have actually, this demon I met a few years back had a little follower that always complimented the musty cologne they wore. Yet, they wore none.” He nods, folding his hands together and placing them behind his back. 

“Did that person ever talk about a taste?” He asks, walking up to the gates of the house. 

“A taste?” He purses his lips in confusion. 

“Yes, did the follower talk about a taste in their mouth? One that might be similar to what they smell?” They’re standing at the front gate of the house and Solomon suddenly gets a look of realization. 

“Did a demon attack y/n?” 

“What? No, not that I know of.” He lies. 

“Mammon are you sure?” He immediately asks, Mammon hesitates. Should he tell him? Does he know something he doesn’t? 

“Solomon,” he says nervously, “please don’t tell anyone.” 

“Mammon, of course.” He reaches out and touches his shoulder at his sudden intensity. 

“Y/n…they did get attacked and I saved them.” He shakes his head, “no one knows that, it was late and they were fine just a few prick marks on the arm, they healed up quickly.” He says quickly, “why did you ask. Please don’t tell anyone.” 

“I’ve heard of so many cases about those yellow eyed demon rebelling recently…and the victims tend to have a copper taste in their mouth.” 

“Copper? Y/n doesn’t have that. It's berry.” 

“So you are with y/n.” He states. 

“Wh-what? No!” He realizes what Solomon has done. 

“Well, you asked me about the attraction scent and then asked about a taste. Which, I related it to demon attacks happening around town recently and the victims side effects of the poison in their bodies. Then you said it yourself, that y/n has a taste in their mouth.” 

“Poison? No, those demons don’t carry poisonous glands.” 

“You said it was a yellow eyed demon right?” 

“Yeah, those annoying ones that doesn’t know how to leave people alone.” Mammon confirms. 

“Pretty sure they are. Might want to take y/n to a doctor.” Solomon shrugs, “before something other than the taste kicks in.” 

“But they don’t taste copper, Solomon.” 

“That’s simple it’s…..Mammon, y’know, you’re one of the few demons I know that I don’t have a pact with.” 

“What?” He’s shocked, “just tell me why it’s so simple!” He’s becoming annoyed with all the round about small talk. 

“If you make a pact with me, I'll help you out.” he shrugs. Mammon can feel his body fill with rage, why does he have to get some sort of payment out a friend? 

“No! I will figure this out myself.” he shoves the front gates open. 

“Well, when you give up, I'm here.” he waves and walks in the other direction towards the House of Purgatory. Mammon storms into his house and heads straight to y/n’s room before throwing himself on the bed, his face shoved down into a pillow. 

“Mammon, what’s wrong, love?” you ask him, concerned. He pulls you up next to him in a hug. 

“Remember my promise I made to you a few months back? About how I will be the person to save you whenever you’re in trouble?” he says quietly. 

“Yeah, is something wrong? Am I in danger?” you ask, anxiety growing inside you. 

“You are safe with me.” Is all he says for the rest of the night. What is going on you wonder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i work in a grocery store and things have been overwhelming to say the least but i was finally able to write and edit a bit on my day off.  
> wash ya hands!!


	6. The Deal With Solomon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what matters more to you? yourself or others?

While Mammon was trying to dig for information you didn’t really notice something was up a first. You thought he was just changing in his room before coming over each night. It wasn’t until the last two nights you thought something was up when he came over wearing his school uniform still, even though school had ended four or so hours before. You chalked it up to him maybe modeling for Majolish for a school themed shoot or magazine. Until he came home with your favorite drink from your favorite cafe and swearing to you, your safety with him. You couldn’t sleep that night, you kept tossing and turning, looking over at him in worry. 

_why did he have the need to tell me that? Why out of the blue? There's something more to it, there’s no way there’s not._ you think to yourself. Maybe that’s why Satan has been giving you a weird look every so often or Lucifer’s quizzical stare during meals. What do they know that you don’t? The sun soon begins to rise and you can’t stand to be laying in your bed anymore, you slowly and gently climb over Mammon before doing your morning routine and leave the room. Thankfully it’s a weekend and you don’t have to worry about your lack of sleep. You smell breakfast from down the hall yet, it is too early for food to be ready but you know there has to be coffee sitting at the breakfast table. You can hear the clanking of pots and pans, the sizzle of the food on the stove as you pass the kitchen. 

Once you walk into the dining hall you see Lucifer sitting at the head of the table reading a book, drinking his own coffee. 

“Good morning, y/n.” he smiles. 

“Good morning.” you nod and smile back, you take your usual seat that’s a few chairs down from his, you reach for the freshly brewed pot of coffee on the center of the table to pour into your mug. The coffee smells light and nutty. You bring your mug up to your nose to smell the welcoming scent but it’s also met with a berry “after-scent” if you had to give it a name. You blow on the coffee for a moment before drinking some, you wish you could taste the coffee flavor. Only berries cover your taste buds. 

“You usually put cream and sugar in your coffee, looking for a change?” Lucifer asks, he closes his book, setting it on the table. 

“What? Oh.” you look at your coffee, you do put cream and sugar in your coffee, I guess today you got a little caught up in the scent to even care about the taste of the drink when you wouldn’t be able to taste it anyways. It falls silent for a few moments. 

“My brothers and I do all enjoy you being here, y/n. You only have about a month left here, time really does fly.” he sighs, drinking some of his coffee, “I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay here as well.” he’s right, you didn’t even think about it. You do only have a month and a few days left here. 

“I’ve had a great time.” you tell him. 

“I know we’ve all grown close to you, and some more than others.” he adjusts the bookmark in his book, you look at the dark blue book sitting on the table. 

_Enticement of a Demon_

**_oh shit_**

“I see you finally noticed and with your reaction, it seems I'm right.” he calmly states, “you and Mammon is a dangerous thing, y/n.” he sets down his mug, he looks you in the eyes and you can’t seem to pull yourself away from the gaze, “yes, we were all once angels, disciples of God but we fell from that grace. We turned our backs on God and fell. Yes, we are trying to reconnect the three realms once more. But you need to understand. We are demons. Mammon is a demon. He is the physical form of greed itself.” his voice is stern, you feel as if the room is disappearing around you, all you can see is Lucifer, “Demons were made to attract humans towards sin, we give them the sinful indulgence they crave, whether you see Mammon The Avatar of Greed as his human form or his demon form. He is nothing but a lure for humans to give him power. He himself is attracted to things he craves like money, he can’t get enough of it, he wants every penny he sees, he’ll do anything to have it. Just like how I will do anything for pride, anything to keep my brothers names clean and alive. Leviathan, envious of your close relationship with Mammon and Asmodeus’s desire to be desired by you.” you finally get to blink and once you do you, Lucifer is behind you, his hands on your shoulders, his demon form is out, its apparent by the claws tapping on your collarbones, “We are friendly and we have sworn to protect you while you stay here but consider yourself informed and warned. A demon is a demon no matter what light you put them in.” 

“If you’re worried about Mammon hurting me, I know he won’t he has sworn to protect me.” You tell him, you believe it, with your whole being you believe it. Mammon would never hurt you. 

“Mammon is a fool and he can’t control himself, do not continue this relationship. I will have to take further action if so.” you blink again and Lucifer is back in his chair and you see Beel walk in with a plate of food he probably stole from the kitchen. 

“Good Mornin’” he nods, sitting down at the table, you don’t say another word. 

After breakfast you quickly make a break back to your room with Mammon following close behind. 

“What’s wrong? You barely talked at all during breakfast?” he follows you into your room, closing the door behind him. “Not feeling well?” 

“I don’t know, Mammon, what is wrong?” you say out of frustration and stress. As soon as those harsh words come out of your mouth you regret it. You see the surprised look on his face and wish you could take it back, “last night you came in here acting weird and it’s been worrying me.” 

“I’m sorry, it really was nothing, I didn’t mean to worry you.” he admits. 

“There’s something to it, you can’t lie to me, what’s going on?” you push for answers, he doesn’t say anything, he keeps the same innocent expression on his face, “Lucifer knows about us.” his sudden façade of ignorance dissipates into intense worry. 

“He knows? How? Did you say something on accident?” he steps towards you. 

“No,” you shake your head, “I forgot to put my cream in sugar in my coffee before I drank it and I can’t taste anything other than berry anyways and he figured it out himself.” you walk into his embrace, he holds you, “he was reading some book called “Enticement of a demon” and he told me to break things off with you, what do you all know that I don’t!” 

“y/n...” he sighs, “about the taste in your mouth,” he takes a moment to form his words, “I looked into that taste you talk about in your mouth and nothing is explaining it. It’s not because of your attraction to me, there’s no explanation to it,” he grabs you gently by the shoulders and pulls you away from him, he’s looking you in the eyes. You remember the last time he touched you like this. The night you both made up and kissed at the festival yet, your stomach is tied in knots in a different way something tells you that this isn’t going to end with a kiss, “I did run into Solomon last night after returning those books to the library,” 

“You went to a library?” you ask with a hint of shock in your voice. He shakes his head. 

“Listen, I ran into him at the café to get your drink and when he found out that I was getting that for you he called us out being together, he got me to admit we were seeing each other and he has a theory about the taste in your mouth. He must’ve said something to Lucifer.” 

“What’s his theory?!” your heart skips a beat at the news. 

“That’s the problem he won’t tell me.” he drops his arms down to his side and walks over to your bed and sits down. 

“Why? Do you owe him money or something?” that’s the only thing you could think of, Mammon does owe quite a bit of people some amount of money. 

“He wants to make a pact with me.” his voice is sour; he despises the idea of making a pact with him. 

“Why not make one?” 

“I don’t want to give up my freedom to that asshole.” he spits back just as fast as you asked the question. 

“But, Mammon, he could help us figure this out.” you plead. 

“I’m not having some-some-” he struggles to find the right word, “low life _human_ have power over me!” he raises his voice towards the end. You're shocked. 

“You made a pact with me and I'm a human.” 

“It’s different.” he shakes his head in denial. 

“It’s not! Solomon is a powerful sorcerer and he has been nothing but nice to everyone! If anyone is weak, it’s me!” you yell, “Solomon wouldn’t control you, just make the pact!” 

“You can’t force me to do something I don’t want to! I-” 

“but I can!” you feel tears brimming your eyes, you don’t want to force him to do anything he doesn’t want to, you want him to feel free but you also want to know what’ wrong with you, why is everyone so worried about you all the time and why do you have this damn taste in your mouth?! Mammon is staring at you, he’s waiting for you to stay those words to control him, he looks upset...no... he looks pissed, he’s daring you to do something, “why do you hate humans so much? Why do you even like me if you hate humans so much?” you drop your head and you remember what Lucifer said; _“A demon is a demon no matter what light you put them in”_

“I don’t hate humans, I just...” he drops his mean gaze, he lets his stern tone of voice fade. 

“Is Lucifer right? Do you really just want me for my life force?” you’re afraid of his answer, that’s what he said a long time ago, that’s why he didn’t want to be with you in the first place, he would hurt you. That's why Lucifer doesn’t want you with him, he will indulge in what he was made to do, to hurt humans, to let humans indulge in what they crave and you crave Mammon. 

“y/n, please. You know I don’t want to do that; I want to protect you more than anything.” he reaches for your face; you’ve moved to stand in front of him. You move your head away from his touch. 

“Then please try to negotiate with Solomon. You don’t have to make a pact just please help me figure out what’s wrong with me.” you look him in the eyes. He drops his hand onto his lap, he nods. 

“Alright, I will try my best.” he stands up, “I will protect you, y/n, no matter what you think of me.” he leaves you alone in your room and leaves that tugging feeling in your chest again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> should be more chapters up soon on the app!! i'm excited!! meanwhile i'm trying to unlock the Devil's flower on my Mammon Ssr card. taking forever T-T


	7. Satan's helping hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> maybe others have answers you seek and all you have to do is ask...

That evening you’ve cornered yourself off in the planetarium, you’re afraid to go out in the evening alone anymore since the attack. This part of the house is as close to the outside that you can get without any of the danger. Earlier you read on your email that finals are set two weeks from now and you should probably be studying yet, that argument with Mammon has sent your mind in a spiral of emotions. 

_I shouldn’t have been so mean._

_I should’ve taken his feelings in consideration more._

_Lucifer only wants to protect his brothers but he didn’t have to be so intense._

_maybe I should find Solomon myself, I may see him at school tomorrow. Everyone will be around though._

“Ahhh, y/n, you’re still up?” you hear Satan’s voice from the doorway. 

“Oh, hello, Satan. Yeah, I guess I've lost track of time.” you smile at him. He offers a smile back; they always seem so sinister. 

“May I sit with you?” he walks up to the soft, plush couch you’ve been curled up on for hours. 

“Of course.” you nod. He sits down on the opposite side, looking up at the dome ceiling, glancing over the starry sky and the plants that climb the walls. 

“Y’know the sky here is fake?” he hums, leaning back, his hands clasped on his stomach. 

“I didn’t actually, I never really thought about it before.” you look up as well, it all looks so real. 

“Yeah, Diavolo did some kind of crazy powerful magic to recreate Earth’s sky, he’s very fond of it, he thinks it’s Earth most redeeming quality. You can even see human constellations.” it falls silent, out of everyone here you’ve spent the least amount of time with Satan, it’s kind of odd that he’s come up to talk to you like this. You embrace it though. You were just beating yourself up for being so rude to Mammon might as well start somewhere to be more kind. “I’m just going to flat out say it.” he sighs, you look over at him, nervous, “I know what’s going on, Mammon has not cared this much about anything since he’s figured out the power of money. He's not acting like himself and you’re the common denominator. You’re with him, aren’t you?” you’re flustered, your face feels warm, you don’t know what to think. 

“Satan...” 

“Please, don’t beat around the bush and lie.” he turns towards you. 

“Yes...” you look down at your legs that are bunched up next to you, your heart is pounding. Why is it so weird to confess this to him? “We tried so hard to stay apart in the beginning but no matter what we did, we just gravitated back to one another,” you shake your head, “he’s been gone all day and I can still smell him, taste him in my mouth.” you look over at Satan and his cheeks are red, “NO! Not that, Satan! No!” you yell and laugh a little, “he smells like sweet fruit, and my mouth always tastes like berries since we’ve admitted feelings to one another. He says he doesn’t know where the taste is coming from...but, -” 

“A taste?” he cuts you off, “sweet berry taste? Wait...Mammon smells like fruit?” his face looks so puzzled, you can practically see the gears moving in his head, “there’s nothing with the infatuation effect he has on you that involves taste, Mammon is right there, for once. That’s why he was asking me all those questions a few days ago...a taste...” he’s mumbling, you can barely catch on to what he’s saying, “Can you explain how this taste affects you?” 

“Well, basically, all I taste is that berry taste in my mouth, nothing else. Ever.” you keep staring at him, he lays back once more against the back of the couch and tilts his head up to the sky, his eyes scanning the ceiling. 

“By all accounts, this doesn’t make since.” he finally announces after a while. 

“So, you didn’t know about this until now? I thought you did...” you admit to him. 

“No, not at all, I had suspicions about you and Mammon; not something like this though.” he shakes his head, he gets up from the couch, “I think I'm going to look into this odd taste of yours.” 

“Hey, before you go, does anyone else know about this?” you ask quickly, he looks back at you. 

“Lucifer probably knew from the moment you walked into the door to stay here, everyone else though, no, I don’t think so.” he walks out of the room, leaving you to your lonesome once more. You decide to see if Mammon is back home yet, you check your room, nothing. You check the kitchen, nothing, you check the parlor that’s filled with the most expensive items in the house, nothing. Lastly, you check his actual room, nothing. You sigh, exhausted from walking around this huge house, you’ve been up since dawn. You walk over to his couch and plop down. His room is a mess, soda cans and snacks. When does he even have time to eat these? Papers and magazines cover his coffee table, a bunch of scribbled hand writing and pages opened up to photos of him. You pick up a magazine and start flipping through the pages, your eyes feel heavy, you try to keep them open but, this designer, uncomfortable couch suddenly seems like the best place to sleep. You don’t even remember closing your eyes before drifting off into a dream world. 

A dream world of flowers and spiraling clouds, a world smelling of white sage and lavender, a world spinning with emotions, happiness, sadness, anger, confusion, acceptance, you feel like you’re falling, very gently falling and the space around you is covered in fruits of every kind. You reach out to touch the fruit, to grab them, to taste them but with the slightest bit of contact they burst into a red liquid, some darker than others, soon enough all the berries explode and all you see is red before your eyes open once again. 

You're in Mammon’s bed, covered up in what feels like five blankets, he’s lying beside you, his hand on your side. You turn around to face him, his eyes start to crack open, once they make contact with yours you go for it, you kiss him. You kiss him over and over. He wraps his arms around you, pulling you on top of him. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I so sorry, I don’t want to force you to do anything and I don’t want to mean to you ever again. I’m sorry Mammon.” You say to him in a gush of emotion. He looks so overwhelmed for a moment; he cups your face in his hands. 

“Y/n, it’s okay, I know you’re probably scared and confused. I'm confused too, I don’t know why this is happening either. I'll figure it out though.” 

“I’ll help you the best I can! I won’t sit back and be helpless anymore.” You shake your head and hold onto him, burying your head in the nook of his neck. He gives you a reassuring squeeze, rubbing your back. You can hear his heart beat, you can feel his chest rise and fall beneath you. 

“Y/n...” he says softly, tracing his fingers up and down your sides, feeling your curves and bumps, your rolls or smooth sides, he breathes in your soft scent, his eyes closed, his entire body feels warm. You feel so at peace, you don’t even feel the smile on your face. This moment so natural, so filled with love. “You’ve only been down here for a few months but I can’t imagine my life without you, I've been alive so many thousands of years and I have never met someone like you. Someone so beautiful, so strong. Someone so fierce and so true to who they are. I admire you so much, y/n.” his voice is soothing, the sudden wave of compliments sends your heart racing once more, you don’t know how much your heart can take. He sits you both up, you’re sitting in between his legs, his hands on your hips. “I think I'm in love with you.” you’re shocked. He's being so genuine. He reaches up and uses his thumb to wipe a tear from your cheek, “I didn’t mean for this.” he smiles. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“No more “sorrys”!” he declares, he kisses you once more. 

“I love you too, Mammon.” you say with all the love you can manage into your voice; you want to convey to him how much he means to you as well. A smile spreads across his face, the message was loud and clear. Looking into his eyes you can almost see that aura of light that he sees off of you reflecting so vividly. The color is such a warm, bright yellow. A color of light, a color of warmth, and a color of positivity. He's so drawn to you no wonder it was so difficult to stay away, you get on your knees to wrap your arms around him comfortably, that berry scent ever so pungent, you never want to lose that smell. He starts to kiss your neck gently, his fingers finding their way under your shirt, touching your cool skin, his fingers give off such a comforting heat, you want more., you want to be wrapped in this warmth, this happiness. 

He sits back against the headboard of the bed as your lips collide with his again. His hands gliding up your thighs then to your sides. Sunlight is coming through his windows now, giving the room a soft glow as he lays you down on your back to get on top of you. He’s taking his shirt off, tossing it to the side, you can’t get your eyes off of him. 

“Mammon...” you whisper, your adrenaline pumping like crazy, your legs shaking a bit. He sits back on his legs that are placed between yours. 

“Want to?” he asks with a smile, his wonderful morning bed head and his perfect body you’ve seen plastered all over those magazines is right in front of you. The sunlight hitting is face and chest, he’s so stunning, so breath taking. You wish you had a camera for this, you want to remember this moment forever. You try your hardest to remember every detail of this right now. 

“I do.” you nod, he starts to untie his sweat pants, you’re filled with anticipation, he sits up on his knees, you can see him hook his thumbs under his waist line of his pants and underwear. He begins to pull them down; you can see a certain- 

“Hey!! Breakfast is ready and you’re not there yet?! Mammon, have you seen y/n?!” Levi yells from the other side of Mammon’s bed room door. Mammon jerks his pants up really quick and walks over to the door. 

“I’m coming, okay?! Why are you yellin’ you hermit! I do what I want! I'm your big brother," he opens the door just enough to only see him and not you, “show some respect!” 

“Ugh, just hurry up, Satan wanted me to come get you AND y/n, where are they anyway?” he asks trying to peek into the room, Mammon moves in his way. 

“I don’t know where the human is, I'll be there in a second.” he closes the door; he looks back at you and winks. 

“Hurry up!” he yells, and he’s gone. Mammon comes running back to the bed to jump on you which, sends you in a fit of laughter while he kisses your exposed stomach all over. 

“We better get to breakfast.” he says through kisses, “my love.” 

“Sounds good, I’m starved!” 

By the time you and Mammon get down to breakfast; only Satan is sitting at the dining table. 

“I have a few more questions to ask you, y/n.” he begins as soon as you walk into the dining hall. 

“Uh, sure.” you sit down at your seat and Mammon sits next to you. 

“Ask _more_ questions? About what?” Mammon begins to interrogate his brother, not liking the attention he’s getting from you. 

“Calm down, last night I found y/n in the planetarium and decided to ask them up front about what’s going on between you two and it seems you all have a particular problem, I could possibly help out with.” he says in an annoyed tone. 

“You told Satan about us?” he turns and looks at you, “who else knows besides him and Lucifer?” 

“Just Satan. Besides you can’t be mad at me! You told Solomon!” you snap back at Mammon. He huffs. 

“Solomon knows?” Satan interest peaks even more. 

“Yeah, he said he knows what’s wrong with y/n too!” Mammon adds in before Satan cuts him off. 

“He wants a pact with you, doesn’t he? In exchange for the info?” Satan rubs his face in frustration, “well, y/n, what I wanted to ask you is if you’re entirely sure it’s a berry like taste? Could the taste be covered up by the constant berry scent you smell all the time? Like a placebo effect?” he leans on the table with his arms. You didn’t even think of that possibility. Could that extremely strong smell you get off of Mammon all the time be messing with your senses? You're around him for almost every meal. When he’s not around you can still smell it but it’s faint, it can’t work then, can it? 

“I haven’t thought about it that way. But why do I taste it even if Mammon isn’t around to create the placebo effect?” you ask. 

“That is a good question, maybe we need to negotiate with Solomon.” Satan nods towards Mammon. 

“What do you think I did yesterday? Fuck around? Solomon won’t budge on his deal with making a pact, no matter how much I try to tempt him with money or goods.” Mammon shrugs with his hands gestured up in the air a bit, shaking his head. 

“What would you even tempt him with?” Satan asks. 

“Anything he desires,” he gives Satan this look, how can you explain it? It's dark, serious, something way above your head, Satan seems to understand this look and nods, “to an extent of course.” 

“Lucifer wouldn’t like you dealing in magic again,” he warns, “I’m not trying to be like him, the cocky bastard but when it comes to that, it has to be a last resort.” Satan stands up, “let me talk to Solomon, maybe if he knows that more of us know what’s going on, he’ll be willing to talk.” 

“Have at it.” Mammon picks up his fork and starts to dig into his breakfast. 

“Thank you, Satan, really, thank you for being so kind.” you offer him a warm smile, you’re so thankful he’s cooperating like this. A slight blush appears on his cheeks that you can’t help to notice on his very pale skin. 

“It’s no problem, your safety is our priority.” he walks out of the hall, leaving you and Mammon to a peaceful breakfast together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who else has animal crossing?!! it's basically taken up all my free time lmao


	8. Secret's out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ignorance is bliss but keeping secrets is dangerous.

You're late to school which means you have to stay over to catch up on the first class you missed this morning, you and Mammon are sitting in a silent study hall. The room is dark, only lit up by small hanging fairy lights covering the ceiling, you don’t have much of a problem seeing your work though, you much rather be at your café with a nice cup of coffee or rather a tea since your stomach has felt a little upset today. 

“Ahhhh, how did Satan manage not to get in trouble?!” Mammon says in frustration, “we could be out there confronting Solomon too!” 

“I think if all three of us walk up on Solomon demanding answers, it’ll scare him off.” you tell him in a soft tone trying not to disturb the other students around you. 

“Maybe he needs to be scared! He can’t be playing around like this!” 

“Mammon, honey,” you whisper, “let’s talk about this later.” you glance around at your now staring peers. He sighs and rests his head on his hand. After finishing up on the classwork you missed and studying for your finals. You agree to let Mammon take you into town to look for Solomon. You have to be right next to him while you walk since you can’t hold hands in public. He’s been very paranoid over your safety since your attack, it puts yours and his mind at ease at this slight precaution. You two walk around the shopping areas, hang out spots and even around the premises of Purgatory Hall. Nothing, didn’t see Satan either. Mammon ushers you along though, to keep looking. “Mammoonnnn,” you whine, “my feet are killing me! Can we sit down for a minute, please.” you feel like you have to drag yourself to keep up with him now. Your stomach starts to feel a bit queasy, your head a bit light but, you don’t want to bother him about that. He stops, looking back at you, he looks so frustrated but once he sees your pleading eyes, he sighs and nods. 

“We’re close to the fairgrounds if you wanna go, we can hide out in that overlook?” he offers. You remember that magical night, the people, the stalls, the food, the fireworks, the kissing...you’d love to go back, you agree to go and make your way to the fair grounds. The walk across the field seems so much longer when there’s no stalls lined up. The field stretches farther than you can see, you wonder where exactly on this field you got your gifts from the brothers and where the stall with all those glowing orbs of light was set up, you keep that yellow orb of light in your room now as a night light, you never want to lose it. It means so much to you, it reminds you of Mammon. 

He reaches out and grabs your hand, interlacing your fingers together. Wind is blowing through the field, you can see it coming your way by the grass flowing in the distance, you can hear the hushing noise it makes as it breezes by. Eventually you make it back to the entrance up to the overlook. He moves some branches out of the way for you to duck under, the brush seems thicker than it did a month ago during the fair. The hollowed-out trail leading up towards the overlook is covered in leaves and flowers. You didn’t see all of this last time walking through, it was so dark inside you couldn’t appreciate the beauty. Sunlight is poking through with dots and bunches of light. Little pink flowers line the top of the hollowed out bushes, you pluck one on your way up. 

You reach the wooden decked platform and sit down facing the overlook of the city, twirling the flower between your fingers. He sits down next to you. He pulls out his phone and pulls up a camera. 

“Take a photo with me!” he smiles, “we don’t have any!” 

“Ahh, I’m all sweaty from walking...” you counter. 

“You look beautiful, pleeasee!” he begs and you sigh, snuggling up closer to him. He takes the photo. He immediately sets it as his phone background. 

“Don’t I get one?” you push, he takes your phone and takes photo after photo of himself and the both of you. He ends up sending all of those to himself as well. He seems happy, that’s all you really want, is his happiness. Just to see a smile on his face lets your mind rest. Playful, happy Mammon is who you fell in love with and seeing him being his whole self is wonderful. You both decide to sit there for a while and talk to pass the time. He’s changed his position to face you, his head leaning against the wooden pole supporting the guard rail above him. You've been telling him stories about your life in the human world from childhood memories to your favorite foods and places to go. You tell him about your friends, family and how much you miss them. As you tell him these things you’ve come to realize that Mammon is immortal, you knew that of course but, he will live on. You will grow old, you’ll die one day, Mammon will stay the same. Which leads you to remembering your time here with him is even shorter than that. In a month’s time, you’ll go home, you don’t know when you’ll see him again. You don’t know if you can ever come back to Devildom. You look out on the city then back at Mammon who has straightened up now, noticing your sudden concern. You feel dizzy. You crush the flower in your hand from your grip. 

“You okay?” he asks. You are about to tell him yes when your vision starts to go black and you can’t see anything. Maybe it’s from not eating much today and walking around so much, you’re exhausted but you try to fight off the want to pass out. You rub your eyes for a moment, your body feels weak, you start to fall forwards before Mammon jolts towards you to catch you. Mammon freaks out at your sudden strange behavior, bursting into his demon form, he scoops you up and takes off. He's fast, you can’t even see the slightest of blurs around you. You close your eyes; you can’t withstand the pressure of how fast he’s moving. Before you know it, you feel air conditioning and you’re being laid on a couch and every single brother is around you. 

“Wha-?” you try to say but you’re cut off by Lucifer. 

“Don’t talk!” he yells, last thing you remember is reaching out for Mammon. You pass out. Mammon is hysterical, he’s yelling about Solomon and being regretful towards dragging you around everywhere. Satan is talking to their private doctors as they rush into the house. 

“Mammon, did something happen to y/n at all that you can remember? A scratch on them? Them acting weird or hiding something?” Satan tries to calm Mammon down to help concentrate on helping better your rapidly worsening state. Mammon looks Satan in the eyes and he knows exactly what Satan is tugging at. The attack. Did Satan get more information out of Solomon? “Mammon.” everyone’s eyes are on Mammon, the tension in the air is unbelievably dense. 

“A while back, y/n got locked outside of the house after curfew, one of those yellow eyed demons attacked them, digging into their arm. I fought it off and they were alright! It wasn’t a poisonous type, why does this matter?” He explains, “y/n passed out, shouldn’t we do something?!” 

“Listen if it’s what I'm thinking it is, it might be related to a certain string of attacks going on with those subspecies of demon mimicking other demons’ appearances.” Satan informs,” This is probably what Solomon was hinting about when you were talking to him.” 

“We’re going to have to take them to the hospital if so and quickly.” One of the doctors informs them, Lucifer nods at them and they pick your unconscious body up, quickly transporting you to the hospital, leaving everyone else behind. Luckily enough, hospital care is very similar in Devildom as human hospitals but, it may be harder to get ahold of human safe medical supplies. With you being a guest here for a year; Diavolo had prepared for every type of outcome and had the hospital stocked with some human-friendly supplies. Within those supplies everyone hopes it’s enough to help you. 

“I need a more detailed explanation about this, Satan. And Mammon, you are to stay in this house until further notice and to tell me the truth.” Lucifer states with authority. 

“Lucifer!” Mammon yells back, he wants nothing more but to be by your side. 

“No. Mammon, y/n is hurt and we don’t even know how bad. Your whole job was to watch over them and to make sure of their safety. And I obviously know that something is going on between you two that you aren’t telling me or your brothers. You’ve been keeping secrets and you need to tell the truth. How did y/n get into this situation in the first place?” Lucifer crosses his arms; he really only wants all the information to help further along your recovery, if possible. He also fears history may repeat itself like things did with Lilith and he may lose his little brother. 

“Just let me be with y/n!” Mammon pleads. 

“You’re dating y/n?!” Levi yells. 

“Something going on between you two?!” Asmo adds in. 

“We should hurry to the hospital for y/n, in case something goes wrong.” Beel buts in with a firm nod. With Levi and Asmo’s agreement, they rush off to the hospital, declaring that they need to be filled in as soon as possible. Once the doors are shut to the main entrance, it opens again and this time it’s Diavolo. 

“Barbatos is already at the hospital and with the information he has already learned with his power,” which is seeing the past and future, “he’s already adding in advice to care and treatment for y/n.” he strolls into the room and sits down on the couch you were previously laid out on. 

“Lord Diavolo.” Lucifer bows. 

“Everyone, sit, we have quite the conversation to have.” Diavolo waves his hand and three chairs appear in front of them and they each take a seat. 

_**one very long, stressful explanation by Mammon and Satan later**_

“So, you’re saying this new subspecies with a similar power as ‘paralyze’ injects poison into its prey and this poison releases over a slow period of time with side effects of mood swings, loss or gain of appetite, and metallic tastes in the mouth?” Diavolo gestures to Satan. 

“Yes, the demon that probably attacked y/n disguised itself as a yellow eyed demon to lower everyone's guard around it and to get away with harming y/n with hopes of finding y/n weak, wounded or dead later on as prey.” Satan calmly states. 

“And this taste in y/n’s mouth of ‘fruit’ was actually the side effect of the ‘metallic taste’ but due to the placebo effect of them constantly smelling Mammon’s enticement scent tricked their mind into tasting fruit and from the poison spreading and worsening, the taste only got worse over time.” Diavolo clears up. 

“Yes.” Satan confirms. 

“How did you figure this out?” Diavolo asks. 

“Well, Mammon came asking me some weird questions about our enticement effects on humans and of a possible taste side effect. This got me curious and I started looking into it myself, I had to broaden my search over time until I found our local newspaper reporting attacks on civilians in a nearby area. Which led me to the information about the poison and the effects it has on people.” 

“Satan ended up getting y/n to confess about being with Mammon and then they talked about a taste in their mouth.” Lucifer adds in, “which, Mammon had neglected to be truthful about; putting y/n and his brothers at risk. When Satan was actually the one reporting things back to me in the past two days.” Mammon is silent and has only been talking when asked to at this point. He’s afraid he’ll say the wrong thing and lose his chances of seeing you anytime soon. 

“Seems you all were almost lucky to save y/n before they fell ill. If only that blind hope and intuition worked a little faster or if someone told the truth.” Diavolo looks between Satan and Mammon, “Our one job was to keep this human safe. It was to make sure other smaller demons kept their distance and for the human to have a positive educational experience for the year they stayed here. It was not to have intimate relationships which is _never_ a good idea between an immortal and mortal.” Diavolo stands up, “You can no longer have a relationship with y/n and after their recovery in the hospital which I will be personally looking over, y/n will be sent home to the human realm, it seems we are unfit for coexistence for now.” Mammon jolts up out of his chair. 

“Please let me see them Lord Diavolo!” he shouts, “all I ever wanted was y/n safety and happiness. I told you I tried to prevent this relationship! I see that aura around y/n, they’re my other half, I can’t imagine being without them, please let me be by their side!” 

“Mammon! That’s enough!” Lucifer stands up as well looking at Mammon, he sounds angry but his eyes show fear. 

“Lucifer is right, this is enough. You will end up like your sister. You need to detach yourself from this human. This will cause nothing but trouble! I will not let my kingdom be destroyed like you and your brothers destroyed your fathers because of a human. Think before your next action.” Diavolo stands his ground. Mammon feels helpless. His chest hurts, he grabs the front of his shirt and looks down at the ground. Diavolo walks out of the room leaving the three brothers alone. 

“Please let me see y/n one more time before they go back.” Mammon begs, his voice sounds shaky, his hands are shaking, his eyes are beginning to blur. 

“We can’t go against Diavolo’s word. I'm sure he will allow phone calls or text messaging.” Even Lucifer sounds shaken up by the recent conversation and by the sudden seriousness of Mammon. He lets himself out of the room. Satan looks over at Mammon, he’s never seen his older brother so torn up before, it concerns him. He doesn’t want to leave him alone but, Mammon storms off. He makes his way down the hall to his room. He slams his bedroom door shut behind him as he walks in. Sitting down on his couch he lays his head in his hands, gripping the front of his hair. He lets his demon form disappear for now. He allows himself to cry. He can’t help but to think that this is his fault. If he just ignored y/n things would’ve turned out different. You would’ve been healthy and living your last few months in Devildom normally. He knew he should’ve kept his distance; he shouldn’t have kissed you that night. 

“What am I going to do?” he asks himself, “I vowed to protect them and I failed.” he leans against the back of the couch, keeping his hands on his face, letting his tears collect in his palms and run down his wrists. This anger boils up inside of him the more he thinks about you waking up in the hospital and he’s not there to assure you that you’ll be okay. He wants to tell you how smart his brother is and how he figured out everything which, saved your life... when he couldn’t. “FUCK!” he yells, standing up, brushing his hands through his hair. If only Solomon cooperated, if only he made that pact with him. You wouldn’t be in the state you’re in. 

_if only... if only..._

You wake up in the hospital a few hours later after your body, with some help from an IV of fluids, fights off the worst infection seen by this new subspecies of demon. The doctors inform you that you’ll be fine, you’ll feel weak for a few days but you won’t die. Soon enough Levi, Asmo and Beel walk into your room after waiting out in the lobby for you to wake up. 

“Thank goodness you’re okay!” Asmo shouts, running up to your bed, throwing his arms around you in a tight hug. 

“Ah!” you gasp at the sudden contact, you look between the three of them, “What exactly is going on right now?” you are confused, you know the reason why you’re here but how did you get here? 

“We were all just getting home for the night when suddenly Mammon reached out to us in a panic about you being sick, Lucifer told him to bring you to the house not knowing how bad off you really were.” Asmo informs you. 

“Yeah, it kind of scared me at first, I was hearing Mammon in my head and I thought for sure I was losing it! I almost started to think I was spending too much time alone!” Levi lets out a nervous laugh. 

“Like telepathically.... he reached out to you guys? You all can do that?” you say stunned. You thought that was only a ‘thing’ in the movies but living in Devildom surrounded by the impossible, this shouldn’t surprise you. 

“Yeah,” Beel sits down in the chair next to your bed, “it really became useful when we fell from grace.” 

“Where is Mammon?” you ask, then realizing you should ask about Satan and Lucifer too but before you could; you see the awkward look the brothers were giving each other. “What is it? What about Satan and Lucifer?” 

“Well, Satan and Mammon had to stay back to explain things to Lucifer which he is probably going to give a full report to Diavolo.” Asmo crosses his arms, shaking his head, “Why didn’t you tell us about you and Mammon being together! I thought we were friends!” 

“What?” you’re shocked! How do they know about this? Did your secret really get out? Your hospital room door opens up once more with a slight knock, in walks Satan, Lucifer and Diavolo. I guess once they found out you were able to get visitors they came straight over. All this excitement really is making you feel exhausted yet, all you’re doing is talking. 

“I’m glad you’re awake!” Diavolo says to you in a cheery tone, “How are you feeling?” 

“A little tired but otherwise, I'm okay, thank you Lord Diavolo.” you bow your head down a little to show your respect for him. 

“Wonderful to hear,” Lucifer adds in, “you should be able to come back to the House of Lamentation tomorrow morning.” you’re grateful for everyone being here to support you but where is Mammon, why isn’t he here? You would’ve thought he would be the first person in your face when you woke up. He's late to almost every event but he would for sure be here for this one. There’s no doubt in your mind that he wants to be here, that could only mean one thing. 

“Regarding your relationship with Mammon,” Diavolo speaks up as if he’s practically reading your mind or maybe he’s reading the slight panic in your eyes, “It’s forbidden, an intimate relationship between an immortal and mortal has proven unattainable time and time again with disaster as the end result.” he explains to you, “for your safety, for Mammon’s safety, for Devildom, the human realm and even the celestial realm; your relationship cannot continue.” he shakes his head. You look around the room at the brothers, none of them meet your gaze, not even Lucifer. 

“No harm was ever done when we have been together though!” you try to convince those around you. 

“Look at you, y/n, you’re in a hospital bed!” Lucifer gestures to you. 

“This wasn’t because of Mammon! I know you all blame him for a lot of things and think he’s reckless but he saved me! He was there to protect me when I was getting attacked! I could’ve been dead!” you plead. 

“Because of Mammon not reporting the incident you’re here in this situation.” he counters. 

“I didn’t want Mammon to tell anyone, I didn’t want to worry anyone else!” you can tell you’re losing this argument but all you want is to see Mammon. You feel dizzy again, that same light headed sensation washes over you again, you’re over exerting yourself. You refuse to lay back though; you want to seem strong. 

“This is precisely why we forbid relationships with humans,” Diavolo adds in, “once a human has any sort of power over a demon or angel, it never ends well. I know your intentions are pure and you mean no harm to those around you but, acting foolishly does affect those around you. We'll continue this conversation later, get some more rest.” he waves his hand and a vase of yellow flowers appear next to your bed, you look over at them and your chest aches. Reluctantly, the brothers leave you to rest for the rest of the night, you smell the flowers. They smell sweet....like....berries. 

_please let me see him again, please let things work out,_ you think to yourself, _I love him so much, just let him be okay._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've been rereading this and changing it so many times. lol but, i was on instagram the other morning and i saw a drawing of mc and mammon on a overlook over Devildom, kissing with fireworks in the background ! ! ! ! almost shit myself, looked at the caption and it didn't say anything about being inspired by a story rip. probably just a coincidence \\(-.-)/ but the art was absolutely amazing. wish i saved it.


	9. Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPACE 
> 
> when a soul gives up on hope  
> there's a pace in their being  
> this space creates a dark void  
> which sucks in every happy thing  
> everything that made that soul smile  
> the soul thought that if it gave up on hope  
> it wouldn't have to deal with the pain of disappointment and loss  
> but little does that soul know  
> giving up on hope adds more pain and bad endings  
> than holding on a little longer 
> 
> -a poem by me back in like 2016

That night it’s not too difficult to fall asleep, though you’re a little lonely in your hospital bed, you drift off quickly. You dream of a large door; it’s made out of birch wood. You reach out towards it, pressing your hands against it, the door is heavy, you look up and suddenly the door is a lot taller than it was before. You keep pushing, you can feel the muscles in your arm flex, your teeth grind together as you struggle against the weight of the door. You press your forehead against the door, feeling the rough surface against your skin, you lean your whole body against the door. For some reason you have this feeling of needing this door to open. It _has_ to open! 

“Please.” you say desperately. And the door starts to creak open but only enough for you to look through a crack, when you do; you see a world filled of color. Grass that changes colors as it sways in the wind, trees that grow in wild twists and turns. You try to push the door open wider when, it slams shut. You jump backwards in shock. You bang on the door yelling for it to open again, to let you into that beautiful wonderland. 

_Immortals and mortals cannot be together.”_

A voice from behind you calls out, it’s not one you recognize. You turn around quickly to try to find the owner of that voice but all you see is darkness. 

“You’re wrong.” you argue, “who are you?” as you call out to the darkness, you start to float off of the ground. You go up higher and higher and higher. You can’t see the ground beneath you anymore, the door is long gone. Once you realize how far up you are, you begin to fall, faster and faster. 

You gasp for air as your eyes open, your breathing heavy, your hands are clammy, you’re freezing. You check the clock on the wall across from your bed, six a.m. You look over at the yellow flowers still next to you but, they look wilted. You sit up, you touch the petals of the flower closes to you, the one you smelled last night. It falls apart in your hand. You lay back down and pull the blankets up around you, turning on your side when you notice your IV has been removed and a small bandage is covering the place the needle was injected. You pull your legs up to your stomach. You lay there consumed in your thoughts about your dream for a while before there’s a knock at the door. 

“Come in...” you say softly, your voice a little raspy, your throat dry. You sit up in your bed and a nurse walks in with a tray of food, you glance back up at the clock, eight a.m. two hours already? You gladly take the food and eat as much as you can, you feel as if you haven’t eaten in days! As the nurse comes back for your tray later on, Diavolo comes in for a visit, he sits down in the chair next to your bed. 

“I know I came across as very rude and harsh yesterday but it had to be done.” he shakes his head, “I can’t sugar coat things that shouldn’t be sweetened.” he sighs, “I’m sorry, this is a lot and you probably just woke up. I talked with the doctor looking over your health this morning. You're cleared to leave the hospital today but won’t be able to do much physical activity for a few days as your body recovers.” he hands you a pile of folded clothes that, you’re assuming, he’s managed to magically conjure up, “but I do have to tell you that once you are fully recovered, you are being sent home.” 

“What?” you say in shock, “I have a month left.” clenching the clothes in your hands. 

“With everything that has happened, you have to leave,” he shakes his head, “it’s for your own safety.” 

“What about...school?” you try to bring up an excuse that you may be able to convince him to let you stay. 

“Don’t worry about your grades, your current grades are fine and you will finish the year with those.” he stands up, “Do you need me to call someone to help you change?” you shake your head, “Alright, I'll be outside when you’re ready or if you change your mind.” he begins to walk towards the door when you cut him off. 

“I really do love him.” you don’t know why you wanted to say that to him but it felt right, Diavolo looks at you with a concerned face before he lets himself out of the room. 

Your trip back to the House of Lamentation felt like forever, you don’t know what awaits you inside or if Mammon is there. You hope so, you hope they forgot you lived with him. You know that’s unlikely, especially since Diavolo is involved but, you still have that naïve hope. You get out of the car and Diavolo helps you up the stairs, you feel out of breath and need to sit down once you get into the entrance hall. 

“Where is everyone?” you ask. 

“It’s a school day, they’re at R.A.D. Now, Barbatos will be here with you until Lucifer gets back from R.A.D to take care of you.” he walks you to your room once you have the energy to. 

“Thank you for helping me.” You say to him as you sit down on your bed. He leaves you in your room. You look around and everything is as it was except for your phone. You have no idea where it is. It was in your bag, you see your bag sitting by your bedroom door, you walk over to it before having to sit on the floor from getting a little dizzy. You go through it, dumping everything out, nothing. It's gone? Did they take it, knowing you would try to get in contact with Mammon? You shove your things back into the bag before opening up your bedroom door. 

“Y/n, you should stay in your room, you’re too weak to be walking around.” Barbatos is standing post at your door. 

“Oh,” you’re caught by surprise at his presence, “I was going to the kitchen to grab something to eat.” you lie, you were headed to Mammon’s room. 

“I will get something for you instead, you can get back into bed.” he gestures you back into the room before closing the door behind you. You sigh, crawling back into bed. Time passes very slowly; you busy yourself by reading a few books Satan let you borrow a few months back. You end up taking a nap after eating the lunch Barbatos made you. You’re woken up by the brothers coming home, they’re always so loud. You push back the blankets and get up from your warm bed. You slide on your fuzzy slippers and slowly make your way to your bedroom door. As you approach the door you can hear them coming down the hall. 

Lucifer is telling them not to overwhelm you, to keep their distance and not to cause any trouble. This makes you smile; Lucifer is always trying to straighten out his brothers but everyone knows that’s clearly impossible. You can hear Levi complaining about his phone dying as they get closer to your door, you hear a light knock on the door as the mummering between the brothers stop. You open the door and met with Lucifer first, he’s surprised that you’re out of bed. 

“Are you sure, you should be up right now?” he places his hand on your shoulder and tries to direct you back into your room, you resist, you want to see everyone. You look out into the hall and next is Levi. His cheeks are a little red from the eye contact but he welcomes your sudden hug. Which after Levi got a hug meant, everyone else had to get one too. Next is Satan then, Asmo then, Beel and even Lucifer. But as you embrace each brother your anxiety worsens, where is Mammon? You look around for him and you can tell from the concern and sad looks in everyone’s eyes that you won’t be seeing him right now. 

“Where is he?” you ask, you look at Levi who turns his gaze to the ground then to Satan who looks you in the eyes but doesn’t say a word. Asmo wraps his arms close to his body before also looking down. Beel seems flustered and a little panicked at the question. So, you turn your attention back to Lucifer. You feel a little light headed and dizzy. You step towards Lucifer. 

“He can’t be in contact with you.” Lucifer shakes his head. 

“Why? Why can’t he even say hello to me?” you’re annoyed. They all know you mean no harm and Mammon means the best as well. 

“You both need to separate and sever contact, it’s for your own good.” he reaches out once more towards you, gently placing his hand on your shoulder once more, “Please lay down and rest.” 

“I want to see Mammon.” you declare sternly. You pull away from Lucifer, he lets out a sigh, you turn away from him and try to walk down the hall towards Mammon’s room when you lose footing from your light-headed mind and feel someone’s hands grab onto you. You look back and it’s Beel. 

“Please rest, y/n, please don’t make this harder than it needs to be, we will keep you company.” Beel is always so laid back, he never really enforces rules or tries to stop anyone from doing what they want. If Beel is this worried, maybe you should rest a little while longer. Or maybe it’s your weak body really wanting you to lay down and is willing to make you believe anything as an excuse to rest. You give in and let Beel help you back into your room. 

“So, once I'm really better, back on my feet, I have to go home? And that’s it? When will I see you guys again? When can I talk to you guys again?” you don’t want to leave, you wish you could find a good enough excuse to let you stay but what Diavolo says, goes. 

“Unfortunately, so.” Lucifer nods, “originally we were going to let you keep your D.D.D but, with everything going on with you and Mammon, Diavolo has decided to rethink that. I can try my best to negotiate your allowance to keep your phone but there’s not much else I can do.” he shakes his head and crosses his arms. You curl your legs up towards you, holding them. Your chest feels tight once more, you don’t like being so familiar with this feeling. 

“Thank you, Lucifer.” you say quietly. Lucifer, Levi and Asmo end up leaving the room leaving you with Beel and Satan. Beel promised to keep you company but Satan barely said a word. 

“Ah, so you’re finally reading that book I gifted you.” Satan picks up the book you’ve been reading today, he opens it up, “I'm not someone who reads fiction often but this one is a good tale, I really like how the main character gets help from- Ah, I guess you haven’t got that far yet, have you? It's a good read, lots of inspiration.” he sets the book back down on your bed. “I'm sorry about how things turned out, y/n, I should’ve got involved sooner to help.” 

“I probably wouldn’t be here if you didn’t help at all, Satan, you did plenty, thank you.” you assure him but his facial expression says otherwise. 

“I’ll let you rest, you’ll know where I'll be.” he leaves the room, you turn towards Beel who is standing next to your bed eating a bag of chips that you’re pretty sure he didn’t have before but it’s common of him to stash food everywhere. 

“Thank you for staying and keeping me company, I've been bored all day.” you sigh, “You can sit on the bed with me.” you offer, he sits down on the opposite side of the bed and continues to eat. 

“I’m going to miss having you around.” he admits, “It’s nice to have someone new around, you fit in very well here.” he starts to chew on the actual bag itself. Still not surprising of him but still odd to you. 

“I’m going to miss all of you...” you look down at your sheets, they’re fresh ones, they’re a light purple, a lilac color if you had to be specific, you like these sheets a lot, they even smell like lavender.... 

_wait, they smell like lavender?_ you pull the sheets up to your nose to smell them more intently, they do smell like lavender. That's when you notice, that berry scent that was covering everything is gone. 

“Does it smell good enough to eat?” Beel asks, leaning down to sniff the sheets too. 

“Smells like lavender...” you look up at Beel, “Do you know where Mammon is?” you ask. He shakes his head. 

“He didn’t go to school today and wasn’t there for breakfast either. I don’t know if they moved him somewhere else or if he ran off.” he sits back up and crumples up the empty bag of chips that’s been half eaten, “When he gets really upset sometimes he runs off for a few days, so I don’t know.” he shrugs, “I wish he didn’t though, I wish he tell us what he’s doing sometimes, even if it’s something stupid.” 

“Does he ever tell you where he runs off to?” you try to dig for information. 

“No, he just comes back and things are normal again. He may be gambling or trying to make some kind of extra cash. I guess it’s like eating for me, reduces stress.” he informs you. You wish you could at least faintly smell him on the sheets or in the aroma in your room. You guess that everything has been washed and put away, even his clothes that were spread across your room are gone. You didn’t think about the clothes or scent until now. How come you can’t smell him at all? Hopefully he’s just too far away. 

Dinner is brought to you a few hours later and Beel is forced to leave your room before he eats anymore of your food off your plate. You appreciate his company though. You spend the last hour or two before bed reading your borrowed book from Satan. You remember him saying something about the main character getting help from someone when, you get to the part Satan was actually referring to. The main character is held hostage and their only way to connect to the outside world for help was by them befriending their prison guard. By using this friendship; the main character convinced the guard to secretly pass letters to the outside world for aid. 

_it’s a good read, lots of inspiration._ you suddenly hear Satan’s voice ring through your head. You jolt up from the sudden clue Satan has lent you. How is he so smart and conniving? Why is he helping you so much? You pull yourself once more over to your bag by your bedroom door to get a notebook and pen. You decide to stay by the bedroom door to write your letter since you lack the energy to walk back to your bed. How should you write this? What should you say? Should you be discreet or straight up? Who should you give this to? Satan directly? You press the end of the pen to your forehead for a moment, clicking it a few times. Best off to write something that anyone could read and not get too suspicious over it. 

**Satan, thank you for lending me these books. You were right about the fictional one though, it does have a lot of inspiration! Maybe the author got help from an outside source? Anyhow, where would you like for me to place the books when I leave?**

_that should be enough for Satan, hopefully he was laying out a clue for me._ you think to yourself. 

You rip the piece of paper out and fold it up as small as you can. You place the paper under your pillow for safe keepings and finally settle in for the night. 

The next morning you feel more energized and have enough strength to walk around your room freely without getting overly worn out. You make your way down to the dining hall for breakfast. Sitting there is Lucifer at one end and Satan at the other. 

“I’m assuming since I'm not finishing out the school year, that means I'm not going back at all?” you ask hoping they say no and make you go change into your uniform but Lucifer nods at your statement. You sigh, walking closer to the table. 

“I see you’re making it around easier? Do you help to the table?” Lucifer asks. You shake your head. 

“I think I can make it.” you walk up behind Satan’s chair; you get up next to it before having to grab on to the seat from ‘loss of balance’. Satan stands up and grabs you by the hands to help you to your chair. 

_perfect._ you think to yourself; you press the small folded piece of paper into his palm. He looks you in the eyes for a moment with shock. You're worried that you might’ve misinterpreted his words yesterday until he gives you a reassuring smile before helping you to your seat. The rest of breakfast goes by normally except Mammon is not in the picture once again. Once alone in the dining hall you ask Barbatos who is back to watch over you once more if you could spend part of your morning in the planetarium which, he agrees to. 

After another day of R.A.D missed, you meet the brothers at the front entrance. Sitting on a hardwood bench with cups of hot chocolate you’ve prepared for them out of boredom. With a smile you hold out a cup to Asmo who is first in the door, he gladly accepts it, giving you a hug and peck on the cheek. 

“You’ve been quite busy today.” Lucifer acknowledges, taking his cup. 

“Barbatos did most of the work because being in that hot kitchen really took some wind out of me but, I powered through!” you respond. 

“You should be resting.” he scolds you; the other brother’s gladly take their cups leaving you with two left over. One for you and one for.... you sigh. 

“Let me help you to your room,” Satan offers his hand, you see a piece of paper sitting in his front pocket of his uniform shirt, “you must be tired.” 

“Tired of my room!” you joke as you take his hand; he pulls you up gently. You let him take you to your room, Beel tags along as well. You think Satan was going to be secretive about his letter back, assuming that piece of paper in his shirt pocket belongs to you. Yet, once you three are alone in your room once more he hands you the piece of paper. 

“Beel actually came up to me today at R.A.D asking about you, he wants to help.” Satan is sitting on the floor next to your bed, his legs crossed, Beel is on the end of your bed nodding at Satan’s statement. 

“Help? How so?” You ask, hopeful and energized at this glimpse of hope. 

“Lucifer is trying to let you keep your phone, he’s been negotiating with Lord Diavolo for two days now, I've never seen him go against Lord Diavolo’s,” Beel stops for a moment as he opens a plastic container of leftovers out of his backpack, “opinions or word. He’s trying his best to help you, and I want to help as well.” Beel picks up a heavily stuffed sandwich out of the container and begins to eat it rather quickly. 

“We can’t let you stay your last month or let you go back to school,” Satan gestures to the paper in your hand, “but, maybe we can sneak you to see Mammon one more time.” your heart is racing; you unfold the paper quickly and see it’s a schedule. You're confused. You look closer at what it’s saying. It's a one-week diet and workout plan. It had certain foods, times, and workouts to do for everyday of the week starting tomorrow. 

“What is this?” you ask. 

“Well, my original plan was to hunt Mammon down to where-ever he ran off to and bring him back. Though, it seems Mammon is smarter than he looks.” Satan sighs, “I really don’t see what you see in him but, his best bet was probably to run away. He was forced to stay here while the rest of us went to the hospital to visit you. What happened after that? I don’t know.” Satan leans back against his hands, he looks over at Beel, “Beel made a good point though, the only person not there when we were visiting you was Barbatos. He could’ve been told to come here to get Mammon to move him to Lord Diavolo’s castle until you’re gone but also knowing Mammon, he won’t go down that easy.” 

“So, he made a break for it in chances that he could maybe sneak back in and see me?” you ask. 

“Possibly...I hope he thought something through.” Beel adds in with a mouth full of food. 

“I’m pretty certain he ran off and Lord Diavolo probably knows where he is, well, probably not ‘probably’ more like he knows Mammon’s every move. So, if Mammon comes back home, he’s toast.” 

“Not the good kind.” Beel shakes his head. 

“So, I'm going to go find him. It'll take some time; he knows the ins and outs of Devildom better than anyone else. I'm sure he’s shown you a few secret hidden places from hanging out with him so much.” 

“I know a few.” you agree. 

“I’ll have you write those places down and describe where they are the best you can here in a minute. But, while I'm looking for Mammon, Beel is going to be helping you recover your strength the best you can, as quickly as you can.” Satan points to the paper once more, “starting tomorrow you’ll be doing these exercises and eating these foods. Beel will put a request into the kitchen for you every day, pretending that these requests are from you. We're going to say it’s your only request for your last few days here. And considering it’s quite healthy, Lucifer won’t oppose.” Satan takes a deep breath before starting up the next part of his plan, “now, for you working out. No one but Beel and I will know about this. Your acting skills need to come into play here. You have to pretend to be weak still even though you’ll feel otherwise. This is important. We need to prolong your stay as long as possible. It shouldn’t take me more than a week to find Mammon but if you show signs of improvement, they will send you home.” All of this is so intense, you feel stressed, you need to follow Satan’s plan and Beel’s workout regimen perfect. You don’t want to let them down. 

“Why am I working out and eating right if I'm wanting to stay weak?” you ask. 

“If I can set things up perfectly, just right enough for you to see Mammon, even if it’s just for a moment, it’ll be you running to him. Quite literally, running.” Satan stands up, “But, I'll work those kinks out about that later on, first I have to find him.” he brushes off his pants and straightens out his clothes, “you’ll be with Beel mostly from now on but please be discreet, if we do this, we will have to have your full cooperation.” He smiles, a sinister smile and turns to leave. 

“Wait!” you spit out, he turns to looks at you, “Why are you helping me so much?” 

“Well, it would be unlike me to go along with Lucifer, wouldn’t? Write those places down that Mammon has showed you and give them to Beel please.” he walks towards your bedroom door, “See you in a few days, y/n, goodnight.” he leaves the room, you look down at the paper in your hands. This feeling of hope swells within you, things may actually be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i kept writing and rewriting this chapter. overthinking about it as well. anyways, stay safe out there.


	10. the road to the escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> spend time with those you love. my biggest fear is watching those i love grow old. i am not afraid of my own death but i fear for others.

The next morning at breakfast, your new diet begins. It's food you’ve eaten before in Devildom but you’re not entirely sure what food is good for what for your recovery. The food here looks somewhat similar to the food back home but not everything was as it seemed. Something that looks like an apple back home was actually a dessert that had a consistency of a marshmallow. You trust Beel’s choices in food, after all he is the avatar of gluttony. The food this morning was a little bland but otherwise good enough to scarf down. After breakfast the boys head off to school while you make way back to your bedroom. 

The exercises Beel left you are simple enough but you’re wore out after just a few crunches and pushups. You lay on the floor staring up at the ceiling, letting your eyes gaze across the maze of vines now covering more than half your ceiling. You haven’t really paid much attention to those vines recently you can’t believe how much they’ve grown. You close your eyes, imagining the day you first arrived here, the confusion, the fear and eventually the acceptance. Running through your memories eventually led you back to your situation now. You can almost see Mammon in your mind, the details of his features, the sound of his voice, the smell of berries on his skin. You sit up, rubbing your eyes, you open your eyes once more, staring at your bed sheets that are messily laying half way off your bed. You see something poking out from between your mattress and box-spring. You scoot closer to your bed. It's a corner piece of an envelope. You usually have your bed made; the blankets usually cover this part of the bed. You pinch on to the corner of the envelope and pull it out from your bed. 

How come you’ve never seen this before? Was it shoved far enough underneath the mattress that changing the fitted sheet on the bed, you couldn’t have noticed? You turn the envelope over to the front to see Mammon’s sloppy hand writing. 

_”Y/n if you find this, don’t tell Lucifer!!"_

You open the envelope; did he leave this before he ran off? You hope it’s some sort of clue to where he is or maybe a letter directed to you. You reach into the thin envelope and pull out a torn off notebook paper, no more than two inches long, it’s folded in half. Your heart feels as if it’s going to jump out of your chest. You lay the envelope on the ground next to you and unfold the piece of paper. You scan over his awful handwriting. You let out a laugh, you can’t help but to laugh harder and harder until your laughs turn to cries. You feel tears stream down your face. You wipe the tears from your cheeks and shake your head. 

“That idiot.” you say to yourself. Only Mammon would keep all his brothers' credit card information written down on a tiny slip of paper under _your_ mattress. It's such a Mammon thing to do and it only makes you miss him even more. You hold that piece of paper to your chest for a moment. It's a small piece of him that they didn’t take from your room. If only Barbatos would let you walk around freely or if you could stay here by yourself during the day, you would sneak off to Mammon’s room. There would have to be some sort of clue to where he went in there. 

Satan said he was going to find him and you hope he does. You wish you could help Satan more but he says he needs you to focus on getting better and if that’s helping, then, you’ll do it. You place the paper back in the envelope and back under your mattress. Next on your list of workout routines is.... you look over the paper laying on your bed, pushups to planks. You sigh, you hate those. 

You already feel insanely sore after your first small workout this morning but, when Beel arrives home from school, he’s ready to make you work out even more. 

“Just walk around the house with me, you need to be on your feet more.” he holds his hand out to you. You take it. 

“You promise we’re just walking?” you ask him, standing up, sliding on your slippers. 

“Promise.” he nods, “we have to go to the kitchen first, I need a snack.” 

By the end of your first day on your road of recovery, you’re exhausted, you fall into bed and almost immediately fall asleep. The next three days are the same. Same meals, same workouts and same exhaustion. On the morning of the fourth day you wake up feeling the most refreshed and energized than you have since before your attack. You get out of bed, fix the sheets, pick up your room and head off to the bathroom for your morning routine. You almost feel normal. You shower and as you’re drying your hair you get a text from Satan. 

**Satan: Are you awake?**

**Y/n: yes**

**Satan: omw to your room**

_does he have information on Mammon? He has to!_ you think to yourself. You quickly get dressed and leave your hair a bit damp. In no time he’s knocking at your door. You let him in. 

“You meant it when you said, you’d see me in a few days, didn’t you?” you chuckle. 

“You look a lot better, Beel really did pull through.” he looks you over with a caring gaze and even some redness on his cheeks if you’re not mistaken. 

“I feel a lot better too.” you nod, “did you find anything out?” you ask. He walks over to the tables and chairs in the back of your room, pulling a chair out for you and him before sitting down. 

“I have good news and bad news.” he sighs, “we’ll get to that in a minute but, I need to tell you about your...”he trails off for a second, thinking about how to phrase his next few words, “well, I guess there’s no other way to put it than, your escape.” 

“Escape? I am actually going to make a break for it and run?!” taken back by his statement, you’re stunned, you he mentioned that you might have to run to Mammon, but he’s being entirely serious right now. 

“Ahhh, lower your voice,” he waves his hands, “yes, escape, Lucifer has been keeping an eye on you more so than I anticipated. He's noticed your change in food and your healthier appearance.” he sighs, dropping his shoulders, “listen, what’s a song that you know from the bottom of your heart, if you hear the very first beat of the song playing in the distance, you’ll be able to recognize it?” 

“A song? Why?” you ask. He doesn’t answer you, so you think, “Well, there’s this game I was playing a lot back in the human world that had a cover of a famous song in the human world on it, I listen to that song a lot actually.” 

“And you could recognize it from far away? Just the slightest humming of it?” he looks so nervous about this, it’s unlike him. You feel stressed about your trust in this song now but you know that you have this song engraved in your brain by now. You could sing it word for word, beat by beat if you had to. 

“Yes,” you nod, reassuring him, “I know the song very well.” 

“What is it? Write it down for me.” he slides you a piece of paper. As neatly has possible you write down, Stand by Me Cover by Florence and the Machine, you slide it back to him, “I’m going to play this in the music hall for Lucifer on the night you’re going to make a run for it. The moment you hear this song begin to play, it’s safe for you to go. Understand?” he’s looking you in the eyes, you can tell that he’s been overwhelmed with all of this, he didn’t have to put himself through this trouble for you, you almost feel bad. You nod in agreement. 

“I understand but where am I running to?” you shift around in your chair nervously. 

“That’s where the good news and bad news comes into play. Good news, I found Mammon and he knows what’s going on. Bad news,” he takes a deep breath, “you have to make a run for it tomorrow night, can you manage it?” this is what has been bothering him the most, you can tell. “I know we planned on giving you a full week to recover and be ready but Lucifer has told Lord Diavolo about your apparent recovery and we fear they’re going to send you back before the end of the week.” 

“Where’s Mammon?” you lean forward. 

“He’s been about everywhere in Devildom, he’s even more annoying to hunt down than to live with,” he shakes his head, “listen, do you know how to get to the large fountain area in the shopping district?” you think for a moment, you know where the shopping district is, you’ve been there a million times, you do remember this plaza area with a huge fountain in the middle of it. You've been there once before when you first arrived but never since. You could get there, probably. 

“Yes.” you tell Satan with a firm nod. 

“Mammon will be waiting for you there, I'll coerce Lucifer to the music hall around dusk and once you hear that song, sneak out of here and once you make it outside, run, run as fast as you can.” 

“What’s going to happen?” your stomach is tied in knots, “like when I run to Mammon and when I get there? And what’s going to happen to you all when Lord Diavolo and Lucifer figures out you and Beel helped me escape? Am I still going back to the human world? When will I see everyone again?” you say in an anxiety filled ramble. 

“Y/n,” he sighs, he’s very nervous too, “more than likely Lord Diavolo and Barbatos will be there in no time, Lucifer close behind.” he shakes his head, “just rejoice in the moments you’ll have with Mammon.” he reaches out towards you, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder, he offers you a weak smile, “I’ll see you soon.” with that, Satan gets up leaving you alone in your room once more. You almost can’t believe this heavy situation you found yourself in. Running away to see Mammon for only a few seconds. You start to doubt yourself. 

_”is it worth it? Throwing Satan and Beel under the bus? Risking their wellbeing? Risking Mammon’s? Risking mine?”_ you think to yourself. You start to chew on one of your nails, consumed by this thought. You turn around in your chair, looking at your room. You can practically see Mammon opening your door, kicking his shoes off, looking over at you on your bed, and smiling. You remember the nights lying in bed, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. You remember all the trouble you got with him, all the adventures with him. You lean your head against the back on the chair, your forehead pressing into the design engraved on the wooden board. _”it’s worth it, anything to see him again, to feel him again, one more time, even if it’s for a moment.”_

At breakfast you sit next to Levi and pester him the entire meal, asking him about his favorite human video games and his music. He seems a little annoyed but he knows you’re leaving soon so he doesn’t mind. He writes you out a pretty extensive list of games and music to buy by the end of the meal. He quickly returns to his room, flustered at the interaction. Throughout the day you let Asmo bring you beauty products to try and get recommendations of human world products as well. Lunch time arrives and you find yourself on the couch between Asmo and Beel, watching tv, or at least attempting to, flipping back and forth between shows. You wouldn’t have it any other way. By the time midafternoon rolls around, you decide to take a gamble, go talk to Lucifer. You walk to his room, you rest for a moment to catch your breath, you don’t know how you’re going to run across town tomorrow night if you can’t even walk across the House of Lamentation. Before you’re able to knock on his door, he opens it. 

“Y/n, you really should be resting.” he offers his arm for you to lean on. 

_” Your acting skills need to come into play here. You have to pretend to be weak still even though you’ll feel otherwise. This is important. We need to prolong your stay as long as possible.”_ Satan’s words ring through your head. You take Lucifer’s arm and lean against him. 

“I want to spend time with everyone.” you tell him, he gives you a pity kind of look. 

“Your health is more important.” he leads you over to one of the chairs sitting by his fireplace. You sit down. 

“I know I'm leaving soon and I want to spend time with everyone while I still have the chance.” you tell him, it’s true, you do want to spend time with him but you also know being around him now is also risking your escape for tomorrow. He sits down in the chair across from you, a fire in the fireplace suddenly starts up. He reaches over at the side table next to his chair. He picks up a cup of tea that was sitting next to a book. It seems you interrupted him. “Ah, I can come back later or tomorrow?” you offer. 

“No, no, you’re right we should spend at least some time together with your time with us coming to an end.” he takes a sip of his steaming tea. “lavender and honey, a favorite of mine, would you like a cup?” he offers. 

“I would love one.” you smile, sitting forward in your seat. He gets up, walks across his room to a tea set sitting on a vanity. He pours you a cup. Walking back, he hands you the cup, you gladly take it, you take a sip of the hot tea. It's delicious, you’re sad that you probably won’t be able to have this again, “I love it.” you tell him, he seems pleased by this answer. 

“Y/n, I have to be honest,” he starts, you look over at him, fear coursing through your body for a moment, has he caught on somehow, did you mess up coming here? “I am going to miss you being here. My brothers seem so much happier with you around, I hate to see you go.” you look over at him, he’s looking at the fire, “and before you say it, no I can’t allow you to stay, it’s not safe for you here.” he shakes his head, his usually well-kept hair, falling in strands to the sides of his face. 

“What about you, Lucifer? Do you enjoy me being here too?” you ask out of curiosity. He looks over at you, for a moment his serious expression doesn’t change, his usual stoic demeanor unphased. Then, it changes, he gives you a smile, a real genuine smile. The glow of the fire next to him, reflecting off of his almost translucent skin. 

“I love having you here, y/n. You're the excitement we need in our day to day lives down here in Devildom. Please know, I fought for your stay here, I fought for your allowance of your phone. Please know, I am not the bad guy. I really do care for you like the rest of my brothers do.” he nods his head down at you. 

“I don’t think of you as the bad guy, Lucifer. I know you’re just doing what’s best for everyone.” you tell him. 

“I’m glad you think that way.” he turns his gaze back towards the fire. You two sit there in a comfortable silence for a while. You've almost finished your tea before you start nodding off. You're not sure how long you’ve been sitting here with him but your eye lids feel heavy, you can’t seem to keep your eyes open. Before you know it, you fall asleep. It's one of the deepest sleeps you’ve had in a long time. You sleep soundly throughout the whole night. You don’t dream that night either, even your mind needed a break. When you wake, you find yourself in your bed, tucked in gently, still in your clothes from yesterday. You don’t think much of it at first before you remember the night before. The long evening spent with Lucifer. You turn over in your bed, on your side. Curling up into a ball, tonight is the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the delayed update. work sucks lmfao but, im posting two chapters today and the epilogue soon.


	11. running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stand by me was originally sung by Ben E King. it's a beautiful song, I remember listening to it at my grandparent's house growing up. a few years ago when I started playing ffxv, the intro song was a cover of this song. it refreshed my love for this song. I find myself going to this cover of the song quite a lot, one of my favorite covers but credit is due to the original artist.  
> when reading I do recommend listening to the song for the first half. but for the second half, listen to I love you by Billie Eilish. I've had this scene for the story in my head for a while now and that song gave me the inspiration. should help with setting the mood

It's a school day, after breakfast the boys head off to R.A.D leaving you alone with Barbatos on watch once more. You’re anxious, your stomach is filled with butterflies, you spend a good portion of your morning in the bathroom. You've chewed all your nails away by this point and have paced your room enough to where your feet begin to ache. You sit down at the table in your room. You have a feeling that tonight will probably be your last night here in Devildom. To bring your mind some peace you decide to write letters to each of the brothers, thanking them for being so kind and for letting you stay here with them. You even write one for Mammon to give to him tonight because, by the way Satan is talking, it doesn’t sound like you’ll get very much time with him. 

The brothers come home before you know it, you’ve barely picked at your lunch that Barbatos has made for you a few hours before. You walk out of your room to meet up with the boys. Beel, Satan and surprisingly Levi is still hanging around the entrance. Once you enter the room, Levi quickly looks over at you. He runs towards you, pulling you into a hug, he squeezes you tightly. He must know. He lays his head on yours. He doesn’t say a word, you don’t either. The hug is all you really need for both of you to understand. You two stand there for a moment, he eventually whispers. 

“I hope I'll get to see you again soon.” his voice is very faint, so quiet that you barely heard him. You hug him tighter. He lets go before walking away, back to his room, to act as if nothing has happened. You look over at Beel and Satan for maybe an explanation but they’ve already went their separate ways. After all, can’t act weird right now or the plans go up in smoke. You walk back to your room, once you get to the door, you really don’t want to go in. Your hand doesn’t want to reach for the doorknob nor even see that room you’ve been trapped in for days now. Then it hits you. No one around, no Barbatos, no Lucifer, no Beel or Satan or Levi or Asmo. You look back down the hall, you walk back down the hallway, you round a few corners and there it is. Mammon’s room. You quickly grab the door knob and twist it. It's actually unlocked to your surprise. You open the door and walk in, closing the door gently behind you. It's a mess in here, more so than usual. Clothes, papers, trash everywhere. His car that usually sits up top is gone, his projector for his tv is still on, flickering ever so slightly. You walk up to it, navigating the messy floor. 

You switch off the projector, it’s hot, probably has been running this whole time. You look at his coffee table piled with Majolish magazines with issues that only contain him on the cover. You sit down on his couch, staring at the absolute disaster of a room he has, you sigh. 

“So messy.” you murmur to yourself, you grab a few of the magazines, neatly pile them together, picking up empty cups and wrappers to toss in the garbage. You hear footsteps coming down the hallway, you stand as still as possible. You listen, it’s Satan and Lucifer. 

“I found this record that Lord Diavolo might like but I would like your opinion on it before I gift it to him, Lucifer.” Satan says casually. 

“Why not ask Lord Diavolo yourself?” Lucifer responds. 

“He’ll take any gift you give him; I want him to actually enjoy this record.” Satan’s voice is getting quieter, they’re moving away. 

“Why are you giving gifts anyway? It's unlike you, is it cursed?” Lucifer is barely audible, after that statement you can’t hear anything else. You open the bedroom door, peeking out, you better get out of there before someone finds you. You step out, closing the door behind you. If Satan is already talking to Lucifer about the record, that must mean he may be ready to give you the cue to run. Which means you better get ready. You walk back to your room, it’s still a little early, not quite dusk. You pull on loose fit sweatpants, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. As you’re pulling your hair back, situating it to keep it from your face you hear music start to play, your heart jumps. You quickly walk out of the bathroom, into your room. You listen for a moment, it’s not your song. You make sure your letters to the brothers are sitting on the table, visible enough for anyone to find. You wait by your door. You try to map out in your head the path to the fountain you’re supposed to be running to. Your mind can’t seem to focus enough to make a clear plan in your head. 

You wish you got to say proper goodbyes to everyone. You lean against the wall, looking down at your tightly laced shoes. Another song begins, not yours. You take a shaky deep breath, this is awful. You wait, another song, not yours. You check the time, seven pm, anytime now, it usually gets pretty dark outside around this time. Another song, not yours. Then quiet. No song for a while, you grab your door handle, you slowly twist it, cracking the door open. Why did the music stop? You wait a few more moments and there it is. It's the song! You know first few notes by heart, you step out of the room. 

_when the night has come_   
you close your door behind you. 

_and the land is dark_   
you sneak down the hall. 

_and the moon is the only light we see_  
you hear rummaging in the kitchen, you look behind you, the door opens. 

_No I won’t be afraid, no I won’t be afraid_  
it’s Beel, he nods at you, you smile and nod at him. Your body is rushing with adrenaline. 

_Just as long as you stand, stand by me_   
you turn the corner and the entrance hall is right down this hall. 

_So darlin’, darlin’, stand by me, oh stand by me_   
you walk as quietly as you can down this hall, hoping your shoes won’t squeak on the tile. 

_Oh, stand by me, stand by me, if the sky that we look upon_   
you step on the tile, it’s wet, freshly mopped it seems. 

_should tumble and fall or the mountains should crumble to the sea_  
your shoes squeak, you can’t help it, you freeze up. 

_I won’t cry, I won’t cry, no I won’t shed a tear_   
you don’t hear anything but the music and your heart pounding. You continue to walk down the entrance hall. 

_just as long as you stand, stand by me_   
you make it to the front door, the music crescendos. 

_And darlin’, darlin’, stand by me, oh stand by me, oh, stand now by me, stand by me_   
you open the front door, close it behind you as quiet as possible. You're outside, you haven’t been outside in days, it’s surreal. You quickly pace yourself down the stairs, you get the gate, you slip through the opening left open just enough for you the squeeze through. The music is long gone as you run down the street, you run as fast as your body will let you. You don’t know how well Lucifer and Lord Diavolo is watching you but you hope you can make it to the plaza in time. You try not to shove or run into people; you try to hop around crowds. The music, the food, the laughter in the air reminds you of when you were running to the House of Lamentation after having your heart broken by Mammon. Now running to him, the run seems even longer. You wish your legs will go faster. You’re out of breath, the air stings your lungs, you feel light-headed. You make it through the shopping district before slowing down, you’re sweating, tears streaming down your cheeks. Your legs feel heavy, you hope you’re going the right way. You keep going even though your body is screaming for you to stop, you can hear water rushing in the distance. 

“Yes!” you yell, you run one more block, your knees feel weak, you feel as if you can’t stand, you run up to a metal fence, leaning against it. Strands of hair falling in your face, you blow them out of the way, you see a giant fountain in the middle of this plaza, lights are in the water, fading through a rainbow of colors, you walk around the fence, you scan the area. Where is he? Where's Mammon? You look at all the corners of the plaza, it’s dark but the lamp posts are turning on, where is he? You walk towards the fountain. 

“Y/n!!” you hear him yell, you turn around, you see him, he comes running up to you. He's covered in dirt. You meet him half way, you hug him. He wraps his arms around you, picking you off of the ground. He's laughing, you touch his face as he puts you down, you wipe dirt from his cheek, to notice a small bruise under his eye. 

“Mammon, what happened?” you ask, you see tears start to stream down his face. 

“I can’t believe you’re finally in front of me again.” he cups your face in his hands, he presses his forehead against yours. 

“I’m glad you’re okay” you tell him, reaching up to touch his arms. 

“I should be saying that to you, I haven’t seen you since that day.” he pulls you in for another hug, “Sorry if I smell.” he chuckles a bit. 

_”smell”_ you breathe in. There it is! That damn berry scent! You laugh. It feels so good to laugh, when was it when you laughed last? He kisses the stop of your head; you look up and he kisses you. He kisses you over and over, you feel so engulfed in his love. He kisses your cheeks, your nose, your forehead, your neck. 

“I love you.” he says quietly, “I love you so much.” 

“I love you too.” you tell him, “I want to stay with you, I don’t want to leave.” he pulls your head against his chest. You hear his wings come out; you try to look up but his grip is tight. His wings wrap forward and around you. “Mammon?” 

“Mammon, this is exactly what we meant when we said that being with a human is dangerous, you’re acting weird.” you hear Lord Diavolo’s voice. You stiffen up. 

“I’m not acting weird.” Mammon responds, his voice stern, serious, so unlike Mammon. 

“You haven’t been home in days, you’re defying our rules, roping y/n even more, don’t give them that false hope. You know immortals and mortals cannot be together.” you can hear Lord Diavolo’s footsteps walk closer to you and Mammon; you can feel Mammon tense up. 

“I love y/n more than anyone and anything, why can’t anyone of you see that? I'm not hurting them; I'm not draining their life force; I just want to be with y/n! Please, let us be together!” Mammon pleads, you hold onto him, you feel this static feeling coming off of his body that you haven’t felt before. 

“Mammon, you know it dangerous to build up magic around a human that close to you.” you hear Lucifer in the opposite direction of Lord Diavolo. 

“Please don’t take them away from me, y/n is the only person that doesn’t look down on me and sees me for who I am, please.” Mammon’s voice in cracking, he’s pleading with his brother. 

“I understand you’re very close with y/n, we all are, no one wants to see them go or hurt them. This is for y/n’s safety.” Lucifer is trying his best to negotiate with Mammon. You're able to look up at Mammon, there’s a black aura surrounding you both, he’s looking over to his left, tear stains on his cheeks, he looks desperate. 

“You all wouldn’t let me see y/n in the hospital, wouldn’t let me see them at home and forbid me to talk to y/n, why does everyone else’s feelings more important than mine! Why am I always last!” it’s quiet for a moment, you press your forehead against his chest, you close your eyes, it’s best for him to get these feelings off of his chest right now. “I've been gone for days and the only one coming to look for me was Satan?! Is he the only one that really cares? The avatar of wrath?!” the static feeling becomes more intense; you try to keep your hold on him the best you can. His wings clench tighter, holding you close. 

“Mammon we are trying to protect you as well! If keeping you two apart means both of you stay alive, then it’s what I have to do! I can’t lose another sibling!” Lucifer sounds stressed now; his calm voice he always carries is gone. 

“Your brother is right, if you stop now, we can ensure everyone’s safety.” Lord Diavolo adds in. 

“You’re going to take them away; I'll never see them again!” 

“Mammon, don’t do this.” Lord Diavolo is in his demon form now, the pure pressure of his form is bearing down on you, he’s going to separate you both by force, they’re going to hurt Mammon more than he already is. You don’t want to leave him either but, in a way, you’ve already come to terms that you’re going home. All you wanted was to see him one more time, not to cause trouble or anyone pain. You understand now, if he betrays Devildom, there’s nowhere else for him to go after other than.... you shake your head; you don’t want to think about that. Maybe you have to be the tension breaker, tell Mammon that you have to leave for now. Tell him that he will be okay. You're building up the courage inside of you, you feel has if your heart is in your throat, you feel as if words are almost impossible to form. 

“Mammon...honey,” you say softly, he looks down at you, you can feel the static lessen already, you place your hands on his chest, looking up at him. 

“Y/n...” he shakes his head. 

“Your brothers love you so much, they miss having you around, you are so loved, Mammon.” you tell him, you wanted to seem strong but your eyes begin to blur. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” you reach into your sweatpants pocket and pull out the letter addressed to him, “let me go, just for now, do this for me, for you, for your brothers, for us. I'll see you again one day.” your voice is shaky; you’re trying not to stutter. 

“We may never see each other again, not until your...death.” he touches your face, you can feel his sharp nails graze your scalp. 

“I’ll wait for you, I'll wait my whole life for you.” you tell him, he’s using his thumb to wipe away your tears. “I love you, Mammon, more than anyone and anything.” 

“You’re really going to leave?” he asks, you nod. He takes the letter from you, he drops his demon form, the bruises and scuffs on him return, “I’m going to miss you. I'll wait for you as well. I'll wait centuries if I have to.” he offers you a smile yet, he looks so sad. Lucifer and Lord Diavolo get closer, both back in normal form. You feel Lucifer gently grab you by the wrist. Mammon drops his head, staring at the ground. Lucifer starts to drag you away. It all becomes so real. Your heart is racing, your body is tense. The further you get from Mammon; the more the world starts to crash around you. You start crying harder, you can’t seem to catch your breath, you see Lord Diavolo take Mammon the other way. His hands tied behind his back with some sort of spell. His head still drooped down as he walks. Lucifer takes you to Lord Diavolo’s castle. 

Lucifer gives you water as you two waits on Lord Diavolo to come home. 

“Where did he take Mammon?” you ask. 

“Back to the House of Lamentation like I requested.” he responds. You nod, that relaxes you a bit. Soon enough Lord Diavolo appears, without a word, you’re taken to the council hall. 

“We all do enjoy having you here, y/n but it’s time to go.” Lord Diavolo tells you, you look him in the eyes, you can see a hint of sadness in his eyes. 

“I know. Thank you for having me.” you tell him. You look over at Lucifer, he nods at you. 

“My brothers and I will miss you, y/n.” Lucifer tries to give you a small smile but even his emotions are starting to get the best of him. A bright light starts to shine behind you, you turn around to face it, this force starts to pull you in, as you walk into the light, the world goes blank around you. You're in this temporary hold for just a few seconds before your eyes open. 

You're sitting in your bed, your actual bed in the human world. You look around your room, it’s exactly how it was when you left but everything is covered in dust. You go over to your window, your plants are dead, you look outside, it’s dark, the street below you, lit up by street lights, you can hear birds chirping. You look over at your digital clock across your room. It's almost dawn. It's over, it’s all over. You sit back down on your bed. 

“What the hell did I do?” you ask yourself. You want nothing more than to just go back. There's no way to go back, there’s no way to get into contact with them. It's just a friendly reminder that you’re only human, a silly human playing around in a demon world. None of it was really meant to last, not meant to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> epilogue coming soon, be kind to yourself and others. you are loved.


	12. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holding onto your past can hold you back. rejoice in what you have now, it may not be there later on. you are loved and you are love. love fills your lungs. you are needed in this world and the next. be kind to one another. signing off for now. you all are too kind!

It’s been over a year since you’ve left Devildom. It's almost as if the year exchange program was one giant, crazy dream. When you first came home, it was all too surreal for you. The sun was brighter here, the heat was unbearable, you stayed inside. You wouldn’t hang out with friends nor really talk to your loved ones. You fell into a slight depression. You craved Devildom, you wanted anything that reminded you of your second home. On a late Sunday night, you were shifting through your dry goods cabinet looking for some kind of tea to help you fall asleep. It had been about a month since your last solid nights’ sleep. Behind a few boxes of mac n cheese, you find a small purple box of tea. You picked it up, you didn’t recognize this box, you don’t remember buying it. You turned it over to the front, it’s lavender tea. You hold the box in your hand, staring at it for a while. You feel a tightness in your chest, your eyes start to water. You rush over to your spice cabinet shifting through your spices and seasonings. Honey. You grab the teddy bear shaped bottle and quickly begin to boil some water. 

You tried your best to remake that tea Lucifer made for you but the tea bags were old and the honey wasn’t the same. Which brings us to where you are now. The trees on your street are turning brown, red and yellow. The wind is chilly, you wrap your coat around you tighter, tugging slightly on your headphones. You've been listening to a new album by one of Levi’s favorite human-world artists that released a few days ago. You can only imagine the House of Lamentation being blasted by these up-beat songs all day and night since the premiere. You have to admit, listening to Levi’s music has helped bring your mood up, you feel closer to them, as if you still have something tangible to hold onto. You're walking towards this local farmer market to buy some organically grown lavender for your attempt to recreate Lucifer’s tea perfectly. You're pretty sure you’ve found the right honey but the lavender never seems right. You make it to the market; you pick up the dried lavender and a few other goods before heading back home. 

Once back home, you slip off your shoes and jacket, you head off to the kitchen. Your hands feel dry, your knuckles look it. You head over to the sink and wash your hands, then to rub lotion Asmo recommended you onto your hands. You smell them, cinnamon and spice. You sigh, maybe having constant reminders of the brothers isn’t a good thing? Maybe holding on to your past is holding you back? It's good to remember them and rejoice of the time spent with them but holding on as desperately as you can? Could you ever move forward? You pick up your lavender and start your tea making process. 

After making tea, you walk back to your room, you sit on your bed, pulling back your curtains and lifting the blinds. There's a beautiful sunset tonight with warm bright colors covering the sky. You smell the tea, it’s almost like Lucifer’s, maybe you’ve set your standards too high to ever recreate it? You open a textbook; you’ve decided to take ancient religion classes in school this fall. You scan through the pages, you find a page about ‘Lucifer’, a big ugly red demon with huge horns, extremely muscular on one picture and then one of him as a small scrawny demon with a long tail. You laugh at the drawings. Your tea should be cool enough to drink by now. You take a sip. Almost, not quite like his. 

You turn the page, it’s titled as “Seven Deadly Sins”, you glance over the introduction before seeing the sins listed out. Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth. You imagine the boys in your head. You continue down the page, you see each sin has its own chapter about ancient religions talking and drawing out each sin as they see it. You immediately turn to Greed. You read, “Mammon, biblical term for riches, often used to describe the debased influence of material wealth. The term was used by Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount and also appears in The Gospel According to Luke.” you laugh at the thought of little Luke preaching to the brothers on the Sunday morning. You miss his baked goods and his 'pouty' attitude; you can’t wait to see him again one day as well. You continue to read, “Medieval writers commonly interpreted it as an evil demon or god.” you imagine Mammon as a god. The world would fall into chaos. Mammon wouldn’t want that responsibility anyway; you guess the world is saved then. You finish the paragraph, “Since the 16th century, mammon has been used to negatively describe the pursuit of wealth and has been used in both religious and secular contexts.” you drink some more of your tea before setting it down on your windowsill. You close your eyes, it’s been a long day, you’ve been up since five am, you couldn’t sleep at all, you couldn’t stand having another dream about Devildom. You feel your phone vibrate, you pick up your phone and unlock it. You've tried to somehow get your contacts from your Devildom phone onto your new human-world phone but it failed. No VPN or amount of searching the internet has led to any clues for getting on any sort of Devildom website or social media. 

You got a text from a number you don’t have saved in your phone. All it says is “new message” until you click on it, the number appears on top of the screen. “666” 

**hey?**

**hello? Has this gone through?**

**is this y/n?**

**You: yes, who is this?**

**asnklkjbf!!!!!holy shit, it’s LEVI, IT’S LEVIATHAN!!KJBKAHCB**

**You: LEVI?!HOW DID YOU FIND MY NUMBER?!**

**Levi: I can’t stay on this number very long but just know we miss you and we’ll see each other soon!**

**You: I miss you all too! So much, so so much!!**

No response after that, your heart is racing, you can’t believe that just happened, you talked to Levi, you actually got to talk to Levi! You cry out of joy, there’s no denying that, that was him! There's only one nerd that would still keyboard smash for excitement! You laugh, you feel so relaxed, your eyes feel heavy, you slide down into bed. You close your eyes. You drift off to sleep. You feel as if your eyes haven’t been closed for more than a few minutes before you hear tapping in your room that wakes you up. You look over at your digital clock, three am. You sit up in bed, rubbing your eyes, you hear the tapping again, it’s louder, faster. You jolt your head over to your exposed window. You jump back for a moment at the large figure in your window. After the initial shock and fear leave your body, you realize who it is. 

“Y’know, you’re the only human that keeps me waiting like this!” Mammon says through the glass in full demon form. 

“Mammon!” you spring forward, unlocking the window and pulling it up, you grab him and pull him forward. You start to cry; you hold him tightly. “Please don’t be a dream, please don’t be a dream, please cruel world, please let me be awake!” you shout. He turns into his human form, he’s over top of you. You reach up and touch his face. He smiles and kisses your hand. 

“You’re definitely awake, my love.” he tells you, “I might’ve gotten into a certain exchange program for a certain college around here.” he smiles, you laugh. 

“Oh, I've missed you!” you pull him back down on you; into a hug.

**Author's Note:**

> just finished chapter 20 and i'm in need for story so i decided to whip up my own. i'm going to keep it spoiler free, and just add my own imagination to this amazing game lol.


End file.
